The home screen on Android device provides a convenient access for people to store the apps that you use on a regular basis. However, the home screen is a limited real estate, and you cannot save all apps' icons on it. Some people complained that the icons appear on their home screen without installing anything, and cannot delete icons on Android.

In this tutorial, we are going to talk about how to delete icons on Android under various situations. When clean up your Home screen or do troubleshooting on home-screen icons, you will discover that our guides are helpful.
Part 1: How to Delete Icon for All Android Devices
In this part, you can learn the common methods to delete icons on Android home screen but not uninstall the apps. First of all, you should understand that the home screen is the first screen after unlock an Android phone. The icon on your home screen is the shortcut of an app. So, you can delete it without damaging the app. On the other hand, the icons on app screen are the entrances of apps, and you cannot delete them except uninstall.
Method 1: Delete icons on Android home screen
Step 1. Unlock your Android phone with your PIN code or pattern password. An Android device home screen usually has multiple screens, swipe left and right to navigate the screen contains the icon you want to delete.
Step 2. Press and hold the icon to delete on Android until you see some menus pop up on top of the screen.
Step 3. Keep press and drag the icon to the "Remove" menu with a trash icon to delete an icon on Android immediately.
Step 4. Repeat Step 2 and Step 3 to other icons and delete them from your home screen.
This way is available to most Android devices, but you have to know that there are many manufacturers producing Android devices and redesigned the OS. So, the operations may be a bit different. For example, on some Samsung Galaxy phones, you need to tap "Remove shortcut" on the pop-up menu after long pressing the icon.

Method 2: Delete icons on Android by removing them out of screen
Step 1. Also, unlock your Android phone and access the home screen. Swipe left and right to locate the screen with icons to delete on Android.
Step 2. long press the screen or tap the "Home" button to evoke the menu bar. You can select "Edit page" to switch into the edit mode.
Step 3. Now, you can see the thumbnail of all screens, press and drag the screen with icons you want to delete into the "Trash" icon on bottom of the screen. When prompted, tap "OK" to delete icons on Android.

Troubleshooting: cannot delete icons on Android
Some people report that they cannot delete icons on Android. When you face such problem, you can try the tips below.
1. Make sure that the screen where you want to delete icons is the home screen but not app screen. The former contains shortcuts of the apps, while the later displays real apps.
2. Go to "Settings" > "Home screen mode" and select "Easy Mode". Now you should be able to remove icons on Android.

3. To be clear that the icon you want to delete is an app or a widget. If you want to delete a widget on your home screen, you have to switch to widget manager screen.
4. If the problem persists, go to "Settings" > "Application Manager" and open the app with the same name of the icon to delete. Tap Uninstall to delete the app from your device and reinstall it again. Now, you can delete the icon as you wish.

Part 2: How to Delete Icon from Google Store
Another way to delete icons on Android is to prevent from adding icons to your home screen. In Google Store, there is a feature called Add icon to Home screen, which is able to add shortcuts to your home screen automatically when install new apps. To disable this feature, follow the steps below.
Step 1. Start the Google Play app on your Android phone. At upper left corner, you can see the "menu" icon with three horizontal lines. Tap on it to open the menu bar.
Step 2. Scroll down until you see the "Settings" option, tap on it to go into the Google Play settings screen. Uncheck the box next to the "Add icon to Home screen" option
Step 3. Next time when you install a new app on your Android phone, the icon will not go to your home screen.
On some versions of Android, the Add icon option also can be found in "Settings" > "Home screen" or something similar.

Recommendation: Android Data Recovery
Apeaksoft Android Data Recovery is one of the best recovery tools for Android devices. With it you can feel free to delete icons on Android. And once you discover erased important apps, Android Data Recovery could help you to get them back. Its key features include:
- 1. It has the capacity to recover deleted data from Android devices without backup.
- 2. The Android data recovery software is able to get back a wider variety of data types, like contacts, call history, SMS/MMS, music, photos, videos, apps and more.
- 3. It can retrieve the erased files and data from your internal storage and SD card.
- 4. Before recovery, you can preview details about the lost files and make a better decision.
- 5. Android Data Recovery restores the erased files to your computer without interrupting current data on the device.
- 6. It supports almost all Android devices from major manufacturers, such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Moto, Huawei, Google, Sharp, etc.

In a word, it is the best way to get back lost data when you delete icons on Android by mistake.
Conclusion
Advanced technologies make our life more convenient than ever before. A simple tap on our smartphone's home screen, we can access a different world immediately. However, many people do not like the crowd home screen. With our guides, you can delete icons on Android home screen easily. If not like it, you can delete a whole page of home screen directly. To avoid Android add icons to your home screen automatically, you can set it in Google Play. Uninstall an important app by mistake when delete icons on Android? Apeaksoft Android Data Recovery can help you get it back in a few seconds.