Here’s why you can’t delete native iOS apps from your iPhone

If you're an iOS user, you may have a junk folder on your device full of rarely used, native apps from Apple. Banishing them to their own cluster is just about the only course of action since these apps cannot be deleted. Now, we know more about why that's the case: in an interview with Buzzfeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that deleting native apps would essentially cause a domino effect in other programs on the device, possibly breaking things elsewhere in iOS.

"There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone," Cook told Buzzfeed. "If they were to be removed, they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone."

While Cook didn't detail which preinstalled apps were linked to other functions, he went on to say that not every app is connected in this way. Eventually, Apple may allow some native apps to be deleted. "Over time, I think with the ones that aren’t like that, we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. … It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate."

While using up all your screen space may not be on Apple's to-do list, the company still manages to add untouchable apps with many of its software updates. iOS 8 added the Health app and the previously downloadable Podcasts app to all iDevices, and iOS 9 adds the Find iPhone and Find Friends apps to the pile. When the Apple Watch launched, the company flooded iOS devices with the companion app for the watch itself, immoveable even if you don't own an Apple Watch. (Those are included in my junk folder, which has 27 other iOS apps I've never opened.) One thing is certain: if and when Apple lets users delete those pesky apps, we'll have our iPhones ready to purge.