With iOS 14, there are new ways to find and organize the apps on your iPhone — so you see what you want, where you want. Learn how to use the App Library and organize your Home Screen.
Use the App Library to find your apps
From your Home Screen, swipe left until you see the App Library. Your apps are automatically sorted into categories. For example, you might see your social media apps under a Social category. The apps that you use most frequently will automatically reorder based on your usage. When you install new apps, they’ll be added to your App Library, but you can change where new apps get downloaded.
Search for an app in the App Library
- Go to the App Library.
- Tap the search field, then enter the app that you’re looking for.
- Tap the app to open it.
Delete an app from the App Library
- Go to the App Library and tap the search field to open the list.
- Touch and hold the app icon, then tap Delete App .
- Tap Delete again to confirm.
Find and hide pages on your Home Screen
With iOS 14, you can easily hide pages to streamline how your Home Screen looks and add them back anytime. Here’s how:
- Touch and hold an empty area on your Home Screen.
- Tap the dots near the bottom of your screen.
- Tap the circle under the page that you want to hide.
- Tap Done.
To unhide a page, repeat the steps above. Then use the App Library to quickly find apps hidden on different pages.
Move apps to the App Library
Instead of hiding a page on your Home Screen, you can move individual apps from the Home Screen to the App Library. Here’s how:
- Touch and hold the app.
- Tap Remove App.
- Tap Move to App Library.
Change where new apps get downloaded
To change where new apps get downloaded on your iPhone, or to change the notifications you see in the App Library:
- Go to Settings > Home Screen.
- Select an option.
Learn more
Learn how to customize the widgets on your Home Screen to keep information at your fingertips.
For as often as we use our devices and the number of apps we download, keeping our Home screens organized is important. You want to be able to tap that app you need right now without hunting for it. And it’s certain that we all arrange our icons differently.
If you’re struggling for the best way to arrange your iPhone or iPad Home screen, so that you can quickly and easily find the app you need, here are six creative methods.
Arranging your Home screen icons
It’s all in a name
We are all used to things being in alphabetical order. So using this method for organizing your Home screen is a sensible one. Every time you download a new app, you can simply move it into the correct alphabetical spot.
If you find that you’re having trouble finding the various apps you use, this is a safe bet.
Visualizers love color
If you’re a visual person who uses mind maps and graphical interfaces, then using colors to arrange your Home screen is a terrific option.
If you think about it, you recognize logos quickly. The McDonald’s arches, the Apple symbol, and even the Walmart logo are all distinctive in their visual appearance.
If you use Facebook, you know the icon is blue, Facetime’s icon is green, and Yelp is red. So moving icons of the same color together can help you easily find the app you need. And you can sort of meld them together with blues turning into greens and yellows turning into oranges.
What’s your type?
The genre for each app is another terrific way to organize your screens. You may have tons of games, lots of work tools, or many social media and communication apps.
So, you can have a screen dedicated to all of your games, another for productivity or work tools, and one more for your social media and communications apps.
Before you know it, you’ll swipe to the screen you need without even thinking about it.
The popular kids
Arranging your apps by usage can be a huge time-saver and really beneficial at the same time. If you start each day by opening the same apps, say Weather, News, Calendar, and Mail, put those right on your Home screen and even in that order.
By putting the apps you use most on the main screen, the screen you can jump to the easiest, it’s simpler to get to them each time. Then you move apps that you rarely use, but still need, to the last screen.
Organize with folders
If you’re a big fan of folders like me then having the ability to use them on iPhone and iPad is awesome. And you can group them any way you want, including the suggestions above.
You can create folders for all the blue, green, and red icons. You can have folders for games, social media apps, or work tools. You can even make folders for letter ranges if you like using alphabetical order; a folder for A through C, one for D through F, and so on.
Using folders reduces the clutter on your screens. So instead of displaying 100 apps, you can have just 10 folders with 10 apps in each. Plus, you’ll always know which folder has the app you need by using a meaningful folder name.
Make a mix
Making that perfect mix of your screens is another thought. And personally, this is how I arrange my apps.
My Home screen has all of the apps I use daily or multiple times per day. And I have them arranged in that order on the screen. Although I put the ones I use most at the bottom because they’re easier to tap with one hand.
My second screen is all folders containing every other app I have. Inside each folder, my apps arranged by how often I use them. And the folders themselves are arranged on my screen in alphabetical order.
My third screen is all games. And I have some folders for those games I don’t play as often, like Puzzles and Extra Games.
Using a combination of methods can be an excellent method to arrange your Home screen icons. But whatever method or mixture of methods you use, you’ll get used to it quick and be zipping to what you need quickly.
How do you arrange your Home screen?
Some of these methods may seem like a lot of work, and maybe at first they will be. But in the end, you’ll be happy that you took a little time to arrange your Home screen and apps in a way that make your device easier to use. Spending a bit of time up front can save you time later.
If you have already or are considering jailbreaking your device, be sure to check out additional Home screen jailbreak tweaks on iDB or look at the helpful articles by iDB’s Anthony Bouchard directly.
So, let us know how you arrange your Home screen or if you’re going to make a change to one or a mixture of these methods? Maybe you even have another creative suggestion to share? You can comment below or ping us on Twitter!
Folders on your iPhone give you the option of putting like-minded apps together in one place so you can find them quickly and easily. Think of folders as a way to organize your iPhone Home screen. You can organize directly on iPhone or use iTunes.
How to consolidate apps into folders
To add a folder, press and hold your finger on an app on the iPhone Home screen until they start a-wigglin’ and a-jigglin’. Then, follow these steps:
Lift your finger.
Touch and drag one app button over another app button.
A square appears around both apps.
Tap anywhere on the screen outside of the folder.
The folder closes.
(Optional) Touch and drag another app into the folder.
Tap the Home button to save the folder and stop the app dance.
If a folder has already been created but you want to add apps to it, press and hold an app to make them wiggle and then drag the app you want into the folder. To remove apps, while the apps are wiggling, tap the folder you want to change to open it.
Drag apps out of the folder onto the Home screen. A folder is automatically deleted when all apps are moved out and it’s empty.
How to rename folders on your iPhone
iPhone assigns a name it thinks is appropriate by default, such as Utilities, Productivity, Lifestyle, or Entertainment, based on the kinds of apps you put in the folder, but you can change the name with these steps:
Press and hold an app on the Home screen.
Tap the wiggling folder whose name you want to edit.
Tap the circled X on the right of the field where the name is written.
The field is erased. A cursor appears at the beginning of the field and the keyboard opens.
Tap out the name you wish to give this folder.
Tap the Done key on the bottom right of the keyboard.
Tap outside the folder to close it.
The buttons are still wiggling.
Tap the Home button to save the renamed folder.
If your apps folder has a badge on the upper right corner, the number on the badge is a cumulative number of items that need attending to, such as unread messages, app updates, or information updates:
How to use iTunes to organize folders on your iPhone
When you have a lot of apps and folders, moving them around from screen to screen can be tedious. Luckily, you can also organize your Home screens, apps, and folders in iTunes. Connect your iPhone to your computer with the USB connector cable, select your iPhone and then Apps.
Drag an app from the list to the Home screen or folder where you want it to reside and it moves from its old location to the new one. You can even move an entire Home screen to a new position in the lineup or add a blank Home screen — and you can do those maneuvers only in iTunes.
After you make your changes and the Home screens are organized just the way you like, click the Sync button to sync your changes with your iPhone.
Are you new to iPhone world and don’t know how you can organize apps on your iPhone? This quick guide will tell you how to rearrange apps on iPhone no matter which iPhone model you are using.
App Store Tips & Issue Fixes
App Downloading Tips
- Download Apps over 150MB
- Download Apps without App Store
- Download Messenger Old Version
- Download Tinder Old Version
- Install Apps on iPhone without iTunes
- Rearrange iPhone App iCons
- Arrange Apps on iPhone/iPad
App Icon Missing
- iPhone Mail Icon Missing
- iPhone Messages Icon Missing
- iPhone Camera App Missing
- Get iPhone Settings Icon Back
App Store Issues
- App Store Not Download
- Apps Not Available in Your Country
- App Store Not Working
- Cannot Connect to App Store
- iPhone App Keeps Crashing
- Fix iPhone App Not Opening
- Fix iPhone Apps Stuck on Waiting
Rearranging apps on iPhone is a way to make your iPhone customized. You can change your iPhone home screen look by organizing apps or icons. Users who want to know how to rearrangeВ iconsВ onВ iPhone, they must go through this guide. Here, we have mentioned different ways to organize apps on iPhone. Moreover, iPad users can also refer to this guide as the method we have mentioned they can use to organize apps on their iPad.
Method 1: Rearrange the Apps on Home Screen
If you are to rearrange the apps on your iPhone home screen then you can easily do it by simply drag and drop. Most used apps are generally placed on the home screen or you can also put them into the dock. Therefore, follow the steps on howВ toВ rearrangeВ appsВ onВ iPhone:
Step 1: Click on the app and hold it until all other apps or icons do not shake.
Step 2:В After that, drag and drop the app to the right edge of your iPhone screen to move it to the home screen or simply drag and drop it to the dock.
Step 3: Now, to save changes, you need to press the Home button.
Note: For iPhone X or later models, tap on the “Done” button to save changes.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via Method 1
Method 2: Create iPhone Folders to Rearrange Icons
To make your iPhone homepage cleaner, you can create folders where you can put a similar type of apps such as social apps and games apps. You don’t need to use any third-party software to carry out this process and on iPhone, you can make a folder by default. Follow the below simple steps on how to rearrange apps on iPhone by creating folders:
Step 1: Drag an app over the top of another app to make a folder.
Step 2: Now, rename the app folder if you want by clicking on the folder name or cross icon which is next to the name.
Step 3: After that, you can also drag more apps to the folder.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via Method 2
Method 3: Create Multiple Pages to Rearrange App Icons
If you have dozens of apps on your iPhone, then it is better to make a different page on Home screen and then, place the app on pages according to the type. You can swipe from one page to another to use the app. Follow the below guide on howВ toВ rearrangeВ iconsВ onВ iPhone:
Step 1: Drag an app to the right edge of your iPhone screen and it will create a new page on your iPhone home screen.
Step 2: After that,В a row of dots will be created above the dock and highlighted dot will signify on which page you are. You can drag an app to the left side of your iPhone screen to place it on the left page.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via Method 3
Method 4: Rearrange the App Icons via iTunes
iTunes, which is famous for backing up iPhone data, can also be used to rearrange the apps on iPhone home screen. However, if you can’t able to rearrange icon on iPhone using iTunes version which you have on your computer then you can go for other methods.
To rearrange the apps via iTunes, follow the below steps:
Step 1: Run the iTunes on your computer and then, connect your iPhone to the computer. Once it is connected, then click Device icon and then, click on the “Apps” tab.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via iTunes- Step 1
Step 2:В Under the Apps tab, every installed app on your iPhone is listed and also a home screen of your iPhone will be displayed. Here, you can organize or create a folder for apps by selecting a home screen on which you want to make changes.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via iTunes- Step 2
This method only works forВ the versionsВ earlier than iTunes 12.7. The App function has been canceled after iTunes 12.7.
Method 5: Rearrange the App Icons via AnyTrans
Don’t want to use default ways to rearrange apps, then AnyTrans is here for you to organize apps on iPhone or iPad. It is free software to operate. It has better suggestions to rearrange the apps on iDevice. You can organize the apps in a much better way as compared to the above-mentioned methods. Here is the guide on how to rearrange icons on iPhone/iPad with the help of AnyTrans:
Step 1:В Firstly, go to the AnyTrans for the iOS official site and download the software on your computer. After that, install it and run it.
* 100% Clean & Safe
Step 2: Then, make a connection between your iPhone and computer using a cable. After that, click on the “Home Screen Manager” option.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via AnyTrans – Step 2
Step 3: After that, choose “Arrange Home Screen” option to begin using the changes.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via AnyTrans – Step 3
Step 4: Now, you can use customization features for rearranging the apps on your iPhone screen. You can also preview and then, tap on “Sync to Device”.
How to Rearrange Apps/Icons on iPhone via AnyTrans – Step 4
The Bottom Line
Therefore, now you know every possible way of howВ toВ rearrangeВ appsВ onВ iPhone and iPad. Among all the ways, AnyTrans is the most recommended way to rearrange the apps on iDevice with more customization features.В Now just get this tool to your computer and start a free trial >
Member of iMobie team as well as an Apple fan, love to help more users solve various types of iOS & Android related issues.
You can organize the apps on your Home Screen, put them in folders, and move them to other pages, or screens. You can also reorder your pages.
Organize your apps
Touch and hold any app on the screen, then tap Edit Home Screen .
Now you can drag any app to another spot, including the Dock at the bottom of the screen.
On iPhone X and later, tap Done to save. On iPhone 8 and earlier, press the Home button.
Put apps in a folder
If you have a lot of apps, you can put your related apps in folders.
To make a folder, drag an app onto another app.
If you want to rename the folder, tap the name field or and then enter the new name.
Now that you have a folder, you can drag apps into it. Folders can have more than one page.
Move an app to a different page
You start with one page of apps. To make a new page, drag an app to the right edge of the screen. You might need to wait a second for the new page to appear. To delete a page, consolidate all your apps to another Home Screen. When there are no apps present the page will delete.
When you have more than one page, a bright dot in a row of dots above the Dock shows you which page you’re on. You can move an app to a different page and create new pages:
If there are dots to the left or right of the bright dot, you can drag an app to the right side of the screen to move the app to the next page in that direction. Or swipe left to see the apps on that page.
If there are no dots to the right of the bright dot, dragging an app to that side of the screen makes a new page.
Customize the look and size of your iPhone app icons using an app and iOS 14.3.
You can now change the way your app icons look.
You’re about to give your iPhone’s ($599 at Apple) boring default home screen a reboot. Or maybe you’re planning to upgrade to Apple’s new iPhone 12 — here’s how to get the best deals on Apple’s new lineup , and a checklist for how to prepare your current phone first. Customization has never been Apple’s thing, but the new iOS 14.3 update finally makes it possible to play around with your interface, from the size and color of your icons to a wallpaper that can tie into the whole theme. Creating an “aesthetic” iPhone home screen is still a popular trend , but you need to follow a few steps to make it happen, with the aid of two apps.
After that, you can go bananas trying out different themes and perfecting the look and feel.
Read on and we’ll show you how to customize the way your iPhone’s home screen icons look, give them completely different names and change their size and color — without rooting or jail-breaking your iPhone or running skins and launchers. Ready? Let’s begin.
How to change the way your app icons look on iPhone
This app makes it easy to experiment with different looks on your iPhone.
Screenshot by Katie Conner/CNET
The new iOS 14 update finally lets you customize apps to your liking. Here’s how.
1. Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone (it’s already preinstalled).
2. Tap the plus icon in the top right corner.
3. Select Add Action.
4. In the search bar, type Open app and select the Open App app.
5. Tap Choose and select the app you want to customize. For example, Facebook, Spotify or the Messages app.
6. Tap the three dots in the upper right corner. From here, give the shortcut a name and tap Add to Home Screen.
7. Where it says Home Screen Name and Icon, rename the shortcut to anything you’d like.
8. Next, go to the Safari app to find a new icon image. You can search for something like the Facebook icon aesthetic. When you find an image you like, save it to your photos.
9. Go back to the Shortcuts app and tap the current icon. Select Choose Photo and tap on the image you just saved. You can zoom in or out on the image. Tap Choose.
10. Tap Add.
Now you have customized apps on your phone. The original apps will remain on the phone, but you can store them in a folder.
CNET How To
Subscribe to the How To newsletter and see related stories on CNET.
Change your iPhone home screen design using the Widgetsmith app
You no longer have to look at rows of apps on your iPhone anymore. Here’s how to change up your home screen view using an app.
1. Download the Widgetsmith app on your iPhone.
2. In the app, select the size of the widget you’d like to customize — your options are small, medium and large.
3. Tap the widget to customize it. You can change the font and colors. Tap Save when you’re finished.
4. Go to your home screen and hold and press down on an app. Tap Edit Home Screen.
5. Tap the plus icon in the top left corner and search for Widgetsmith. Tap the icon.
6. Select the widget size you’d like to add to your home screen and tap Add Widget.
7. You can change the widget by pressing down on the app and selecting Edit Widget. That’s all! Now your home screen has different sized icons for a customized look.
Note that at this time, you can only customize the following apps: Weather (with a premium subscription), Calendar, World Time, Reminders, Health, Astronomy, Tides (with a premium subscription) and Photos.
There are over two million apps in Apple’s App Store. You may not have every single one installed on your iPhone, but it can feel like it! If your home screen is starting to look cluttered, here we show you how you can better organize your iPhone apps. We show how to organize your apps based on how you use your smartphone. This ensures that your favorite applications are always within easy reach.
1. Arrange your apps into folders
Organizing your applications into folders can reduce the clutter on your home screen. By grouping related apps together, you can also make it easier to access the application you need. For example, you might create a folder for all your social media apps and a folder for all your productivity applications. Alternatively, you can create a “Most Frequently Used” folder.
To create a folder:
- Press and hold any application on your homescreen.
- When prompted, tap “Edit Home Screen.” All of your app icons should now start to shake.
- Drag and drop an application onto another application. This creates a folder containing both applications.
- Drag and drop any other relevant applications into this folder. You can have multiple pages of apps within a single folder.
- By default, iOS will try to assign your folder a name that represents its contents. To rename a folder, press and hold until a “Rename” option appears.
- Once you’ve finished, press the physical Home button or Done button.
Rinse and repeat these steps to organize your applications into multiple folders. To delete a folder, simply drag all the applications out of that folder, and the folder will disappear automatically.
2. Use the App Library
Introduced in iOS 14, the App Library organizes your applications into folders automatically, based on usage. This makes the App Library a great way to access your most frequently-used apps. You can find the App Library by swiping left through all your home screen pages.
By default, new applications appear on both your home screen and App Library. However, you can tell iOS to add these applications to the App Library only. To make this change, navigate to “Settings -> Home Screen.”
You can now choose between “Add to Home Screen” and “App Library Only.”
3. Consider how you hold your phone
It’s worth thinking about how you hold your phone. You may want to try strategically placing your most frequently-used applications at the point where your thumb naturally rests on the home screen.
For example, if you naturally place your thumb along the perimeter of your iPhone, you may benefit from positioning your favorite apps around the edges of your home screen.
3. App usage frequency
When it comes to organizing your home screen, it’s always a good idea to prioritize your most frequently-used applications.
Your iPhone records how much time you spend in each application. This can help you identify which applications deserve prime position on your home screen.
To see how much of your life you’re devoting to each app, navigate to “Settings -> Battery” and select the “Last 10 Days” tab. This will display a breakdown of battery usage for each application.
To see how much time you’re spending in each app, select “Show Activity.” You can use this information to identify your most frequently-used application. You can then place these applications prominently on your home screen (and perhaps look into ways to reduce your screen time if you’re horrified by just how much time you’re spending on Twitter!).
4. Color Codes
You can organize your applications based on color. Although this is a more unusual technique, it can be useful if you have a more visual memory. This technique involves creating folders and then placing applications inside these folders, based on the color of their icons.
For multicolored icons, we recommend organizing the apps based on their dominant colors. It may also help to name these folder using emojis with the same color scheme as the applications. For example, you may use a star emoji for yellow apps, a water droplet for blue, and a heart for your red applications. This can be an opportunity to get creative and add some fun to your home screen!
5. Alphabetize your apps
This is a tried and tested method of organizing your iPhone apps. The built-in iOS applications will remain in their default locations, but you can arrange all your other applications alphabetically.
To arrange your apps, launch the “Settings” application. Navigate to “General -> Reset” and tap “Reset Home Screen Layout.” Navigate back to your home screen, and all your applications should now be organized alphabetically.
6. Use Spotlight Search
If your home screen is cluttered, then why not avoid it completely? You can launch any application by typing its name into Spotlight search.
To access Spotlight search, either swipe downwards from the middle of your home screen, or keep swiping left until you see the search bar.
You can then type the name of the application you want to launch and select it when it appears – all without having to trawl through your home screen.
Wrapping Up
Now that you have organized your iPhone apps, if you need more ways to get more productive on your phone, try out Siri shortcuts. Here are some of the best Siri shortcuts you should try.
Related:
Jessica Thornsby is a technical writer based in Derbyshire, UK. When she isn’t obsessing over all things tech, she enjoys researching her family tree, and spending far too much time with her house rabbits.
If you own an iPhone or iPad, you’ll probably be loading a handful of third-party apps on your iDevices. After all, Apple App Store provides hundred thousand apps for you to choose from. Have you ever got messed with those miscellaneous apps? To help you find and organize your apps easier from the iPhone or iPad’s Home screen, and reduce onscreen clutter, a smart solution is to place app icons in folder. In this guide we’ll show you how to organize apps on iPhone.
How to Organize Apps on iPhone
From the Home screen, press and hold down any app icon until all the app icons begin shaking on the screen. Select apps you want to put together based on different types or your personal needs. Use your fingers, drag one app icon on top of another, to automatically put these two apps into a new folder.
To make finding your apps more easily, you can organize your iPhone, iPad apps in folders based on categories, like Entertainment (you can put Music, Video, Travel, Camera apps here), Productivity, Office, or you can create your own folder name, and then you can simply drag and drop the related app icons into the specific folders you just created. After your app icons are rearranged, press the Home button again on your iPhone, iPad. Your device will save your new folders and display them on your Home screen.
To create more folders – Do you need more than one new folder because of the various types of your apps? That’s easy! Simply follow the same steps above, you can create several personal folders to contain specific apps.
To remove apps – What if you later want to remove an app icon from a folder because you want it to appear as a stand-alone app on your Home screen? Simply press and hold any folder icons until all the icons start shaking on the screen. Then you will see all the apps in the folder displayed. Drag the shaking app icons you want to remove from the folder, back onto the Home screen. When you are finished, press the Home button to finalize this action.
If you want to organize your iPhone, iPad apps better, a third-party software named PhoneClean is recommended to you. If you like this tip on how to organize apps on your iPhone, iPad Home screen with folders. Please share it with more people. Any of your ideas are welcome to our comments section.
You can have up to 11 Home screens (or pages) of apps on your iPhone. And if you’re like many iPhone users, you’ll soon have a substantial collection of apps in your iTunes library and on your iPhone. You have a few ways to organize those apps for easy access.
Organize your iPhone apps on your computer (in iTunes)
First things first: On your computer, make sure you’ve selected your iPhone in the Devices section below the iTunes Store on the left side of the iTunes window. Then click the Apps tab near the top of the window.
You can organize your apps in the following ways:
In the iPhone section, you can click and drag an app icon to a new location on the same screen.
You can drag an app from the Sync Apps section on the left to any of the 11 screens in the Home screen list on the right, as long as the screen has no empty screens before it. In other words, you can drag an app to screen 7 as long as at least one app is on each of the screens numbers 1 through 6.
You can change the order of screens in the Home screen list by clicking and dragging a screen upward or downward in the list and dropping it in its new location. After you have a few pages’ worth of apps, give it a try — it’s easy and kind of fun.
You can change the order of Home screens only in iTunes. No mechanism exists for reordering Home screens on your iPhone.
Organize apps on your iPhone
To rearrange apps on your iPhone, first press and hold down on any app until all the apps begin to jiggle and dance, and the little black “delete me” x’s appear. The figure shows the screen before (left) and after (right) moving an app. The app you press and hold down doesn’t have to be the one you want to move — any app will do.
To move an app after the jiggling starts, press it, drag it to its new location (other apps on the screen will politely move out of its way to make space for it), and release it.
To move an app to a different Home screen after the jiggling starts, press the app and drag it all the way to the left or right edge of the screen. The preceding or next Home screen, respectively, will appear.
Keep dragging the app to the left or right edge of each successive Home screen until you reach the screen you want. Then drop the app in its new location on that screen. If the screen already holds 16 apps (20 if you have an iPhone 5), the last icon on the page will be pushed to the next Home screen. Be persistent — sometimes it takes a few tries to make the screens switch.
All these techniques for iTunes and iPhones work with apps in the dock: by default, Phone, Safari, Mail, and Music.
You can add apps beyond the 11th Home screen. To do so, just keep selecting check boxes for apps in the Sync Apps section after all 11 screens are filled. You won’t be able to see the icons for these apps on any Home screen, so you’ll have to access them via Spotlight search.
You use the same technique — drag one app on top of another app — to create folders in both iTunes and on your iPhone. And to place an app into an existing folder, you drag that app on top of the folder.
A few more facts about Home screens. The little dots above the four apps in the dock indicate how many Home screens you have. The white dot denotes the Home screen you’re currently looking at.
You can create folders that hold up to 12 apps each (16 on the iPhone 5), put Spotlight to work to quickly find and launch apps no matter which Home screen they’re on, and take advantage of multitasking (by double-tapping the Home button) to quickly switch between recently used apps.