iOS 9 Productivity Tip: Remove distracting News app headlines from Spotlight

Tired of being bombarded by news headlines every time you want to search on iOS?

Here’s a quick guide to removing the “News” and “Nearby” sections from Spotlight search in iOS 9…

Customize for your workflow

I often search for apps instead of looking for them in folders. So I like the app suggestions (labelled “Siri Suggestions”) as a way to re-open a recently closed app. But I found myself getting sucked into the news headlines about once every day.

iOS 9 has confusing settings to customize this screen. At first glance, it looks like there’s only once switch to disable everything on the Spotlight search page. But actually, you can hide or show specific sections with cryptic settings.

Disable News headlines in iOS 9

This hard-to-find toggle labelled “Spotlight Suggestions” will show or hide News headlines.

1. Open the Settings app
2. Go into General > Spotlight Search
3. Scroll down (in the alphabetical list of apps) to Spotlight Suggestions and disable its toggle. Note this is in the list of alphabetical apps even though it is not an app, and is not the Siri Suggestions toggle at the top of the Spotlight Search screen.
4. Look at your Spotlight screen now… News headlines are gone!

Disable Nearby section in iOS 9

I prefer Google Maps, Citymapper, or Waze to the built-in Apple Maps app. This makes the Nearby section useless. It takes up space and it’s distracting. This can easily be hidden, too.

Hide or show the “Nearby” section of Spotlight with this toggle.

1. Open the Settings app
2. Go into General > Spotlight Search
3. Scroll down (in the alphabetical list of apps) to Maps and disable its toggle.
4. Go check… Nearby is gone!

Disable everything from the Spotlight screen

If you want to disable everything from the Spotlight screen other than the search box at the top, use the toggle at the top of the Spotlight Search screen.

I hope this helps you stay more productive and less distracted!