Apple bundles many apps with the iPhone and the home screen is full of icons. Swiping through screens to find alternative apps is slow. Replace the home screen apps with your favourites.

The apps bundled with iOS are pretty good, but many people prefer alternative ones, so why leave the home screen full of apps you don't use? Wouldn’t it be better if your favourites were on the home screen?

You might want to use Skype instead of FaceTime, Google Maps instead of Apple Maps, Kindle instead of iBooks, OneNote or Evernote and so on. There are lots of alternative apps and some of them are better than Apple’s. Does anyone really use the Stocks app?

Which Apple apps can you delete?

If you never use some of the Apple apps, for example, Compass or Music Memos, you might want to delete them and free up the storage space and screen space, but which apps can you delete? The way to find out is to long press on an app until they all start to jiggle.

Apps that you can delete have a cross in the corner and apps that can't be deleted dont.

There are around 25 iOS apps you can delete: Compass, Tips, Voice Memos, Find iPhone, Stocks, Find My Friends, Podcasts, Watch, Music Memos, Calendar, Maps, Notes, Books, Weather, Reminders, Home, iTunes Store, Contacts, Calculator, Files, Music, Shortcuts, FaceTime, TV, News, Mail.

Most people would consider some of these apps essential and even though they can be deleted, they should be kept anyway. For example, yu probably want to keep Contacts, Calendar, iTunes Store. There may be others you absolutely need to keep, so think carefully before deleting them.

A few apps are optional and some people will want them but others won't. For example, if all your friends have Android phones, FaceTime isn't much use and could be deleted. If you don't subscribe to Apple Music and have something else, like Spotify, you could get rid of the Apple Music app. If you prefer an alternative news app, then remove Apple News.

Then there are apps that are unimportant and hardly anyone will miss them or will prefer alternatives. Be honest, have you ever used Compass? How about Stocks? Calculator and Weather are OK, but there are alternatives. Tips, Find My Friends and Books can be removed, and Watch if you don't have an Apple Watch.

Removing Apple apps you don't need creates space on the home screen for more of your own apps. Don't worry, they can always be reinstalled from the App Store if you ever want them again. Open the App Store and search for 'Apple Notes' for example, it is listed and can be installed. All the deletable Apple apps are there in the store.

Hide Apple apps in folders

Apps you want to keep and those that cannot be removed, can be hidden in one or more folders and this gets them out of the way. Putting seldom used apps in a folder creates home screen space for your favourites, which can be moved from several screens away and placed on the home screen.

Long press on an app icon and then drag it on the screen and drop it on another icon. This creates a folder and you can name it something obvious like Apple Apps. Drag all the apps you don’t need to this folder icon and drop them. You can long press and drag the folder itself to another screen if you want even more space.

After making space, you can then add your own apps to the home screen.

Replace apps in the iPhone Dock

The Dock at the bottom of the screen can be customised to a certain extent. There are four apps and two are fixed, bur two can be replaced with alternative apps, Apple's or your own favourites. For example, if you subscribe to Spotify instead of Apple Music, you could put it in the Dock where it is easy to access. If you use Gmail instead of Apple Mac, put it in the Dock.

You can't remove the Phone or Safari icons.

Long press on an app until they all jiggle and then drag Mail and Music or whatever apps you have out of the Dock. Take care not to delete them. Now you need to decide which two alternative apps you prefer to have in the Dock. Drag them from the main screen and drop them in the Dock.

Add your own iPhone wallpaper

While you are customising the home screen, you might want to change the background and it is easy to replace the wallpaper image with your own.

Open the Photos app and find a great photo you have taken. Open it and then press the share/actions button at the bottom of the screen. There is an option to set the image as wallpaper.

Start customising the iPhone’s home screen and add your favourite apps.