App suggestions in iOS 10: how they work, what's changed, how to disable them

Apple is no stranger to introducing small tweaks and rearrangements whenever it updates its phone operating system — iOS. It's often the case that an already existing feature will be slightly updated, its settings might change placement or options, and all that without too much fanfare from Apple.

That said, users that have updated to iOS 10 may have noticed that the suggested app feature that pops out on your lock screen or recent apps screen works a bit differently. Namely, it's hard to get rid of it, if you happen to find it annoying, and hard to get to work, as there's no user-controlled "trigger" for it.

First things first: how do app suggestions work?

If you happen to have a set routine, where you always open an exact app around a specific time of the day, or when you reach an exact location, iOS will pick up on that and it will start "suggesting" that app, placing shortcuts to it throughout its interface. The app's icon will now appear on the lower-left corner of your lock screen, so that you will be able to quickly launch it by swiping up from the icon. Also, the app switcher screen (double-tap home) will have a banner on its very bottom, greeting you and providing a shortcut to the suggested app.

As you can see in the screenshot to the right, iOS 10 greets us with a "Good morning" and offers us the Photos app. Why? Probably because we spend a lot of time comparing cameras and looking at photos from different phones here at the office, so this iPhone in particular believes that it's camera comparison time again.

This behavior can also be seen if you always use a piece of hardware in conjunction with a specific app. For example, I use a Line 6 Sonic Port VX audio interface for my iPad Air 2, and every time I plug it in, I immediately launch an app called BeatMaker 2. iOS remembers that and the banner under the Recent Apps menu reads "Line 6 Sonic Port connected" followed by a link to BeatMaker 2.