Can I Remove the App Drawer?
You can’t remove the iMessage app drawer completely or delete it from your phone or tablet. All you can do is minimize it so that you don’t see it every time you send a text message, or customize it to make it less cluttered or better suited for what you want to use it for.
For example, if you don’t want sports apps in your app drawer, or weather icons crowding out the games you like to play with your iMessage contacts, hide those iMessage apps from the app drawer.
How to Hide the iMessage App Drawer
This is the easiest method to delete the iMessage app drawer. Hiding it minimizes it so that you don’t accidentally tap any of the app drawer icons.
To hide the app drawer on your iPhone or iPad, open an existing or new message, then tap the A button to the left of the text box.
How to Hide iMessage Apps
Don’t want to hide the iMessage app drawer completely? To clean up the apps that are showing, customize the app drawer.
Open a message in the Messages app, either an existing one or a new one. Swipe along the app drawer, from right to left, to scroll all the way to the right. Select the three dot menu. Depending on how you view the apps, it might say More. Tap Edit. Select the red minus button next to an app, then tap Remove from Favorites to remove it from your list of favorites. This list contains the apps that show up first in the app drawer, so doing this hides the iMessage app from the first set of apps in the drawer. To delete apps from iMessage that are in the Favorites section, remove them from that area with the minus button, then tap the green button. To rearrange your iMessage apps from this screen, tap and hold the three-line button next to any favorited app, then drag it anywhere you like. The apps at the top show up first in the app drawer. To hide an app from being seen in the iMessage app drawer, go to the More Apps section and turn off the toggle switch next to the app. Tap Done to save the app drawer changes, then tap Done again to exit the app drawer settings and return to Messages.
