Apple TV: Hiding Unused Icons from the Main Screen

The Apple TV user interface is clean, pretty, and easy to use. There are a ton of great and useful services offered - whether you want to use them or not. Rearranging icons to suit your personal needs is a piece of cake, but you can take it one step further, and hide virtually all of those unused icons.

To rearrange the icons on the main screen, simply select the application you want to move by highlighting it with the Apple remote, click and hold on the center button, and it will switch into the all-too-familiar "wiggle mode." Next, simply use the four-way controller to move it wherever you'd like - except for the sacred top row of course - and hit the center button again to set its location. To move another icon, simply select it and repeat.

Next, to hide an application from the main screen, navigate to Settings > General > Parental Controls.

Apple TV Settings menu, highlighting Parental ControlsYou can hide apps you don't use in the Parental Controls settings

Once you're in the Parental Controls menu, scroll down until you see the list of applications. Select the one that you'd like to hide on the main screen, and hit the center button on the Apple remote. You'll see the application status switch from 'Show' to 'Hide', and then when you return back to the main menu, you'll see that the icon will have magically disappeared from the main menu of the interface. This can be done with any of the applications except for Movies, TV Shows, Computers and Settings.

Apple TV Parental Controls menu with Netflix application being hiddenMost apps include Hide and Show options

Now go enjoy that clean Apple TV interface!