Can Android arrange my apps automatically?

Last reviewed: September 28, 2026 · Markdown version

The full list of apps can be ordered for you; the home screen mostly cannot. Google's Pixel phones show the app list alphabetically, Samsung Galaxy phones let you choose alphabetical order with one menu option, and both leave the home screen for you to lay out — with folders, a tidy-up button on Samsung, and a suggested row of favourites on Pixel.

Pixel: the app list is already alphabetical

On a Pixel, "From your home screen, swipe up from anywhere above the search bar. You’ll find all your apps listed in alphabetical order" (Find & move your apps, Pixel Phone Help, read 28 September 2026). That page documents no other sort order for the list — not by use, not by install date — so on a Pixel the list arranges itself and there is nothing to set.

The one place Pixel arranges icons on the home screen for you is the favourites row along the bottom. Google explains that "Your phone suggests apps for your favorites based on your recent and most-used apps, as well as your routines", marks those suggestions with a coloured shadow, and lets you pin one to keep it. If you would rather choose them yourself, the switch is under Home settings, then Suggestions, where you can turn off "Suggestions on Home screen" and "Suggestions in all apps list" (Add apps, shortcuts & widgets to your Home screens, Pixel Phone Help, read 28 September 2026). Google adds that you can only add a favourite by hand once suggestions are off.

Samsung: switch the Apps screen to alphabetical

Samsung's steps: "From the Apps screen, tap More options (the three vertical dots), and then tap Sort." The default is the order you have dragged things into — "Custom order will be selected by default" — and the alternative is Alphabetical order. The same menu has Clean up pages, which Samsung says will "automatically fill in any empty gaps on your Apps screen" (Access and organize the apps on your Galaxy phone, read 28 September 2026).

If the list looks different after an update, that is expected. Samsung's Gulf support site notes that "Starting from One UI 7.0, the swipe left/right navigation method was replaced with a vertical scrolling layout in the apps screen for alphabetical sorting" (How to navigate the vertical alphabetical sorting in One UI 7 or later, read 28 September 2026).

Samsung also offers a layout with no separate list at all: Settings, Home screen, Home screen layout, Home screen only (Samsung organise page above). With that layout every app lives on a home screen page, so the Apps-screen sort has nothing to sort.

The home screen: folders, by hand

Neither vendor documents a button that files home-screen icons into groups for you. Both describe the same manual move — hold an app and drop it on another to make a folder. Google says that "creates a folder with the group of apps", and when you name it you can "tap one of the suggested names at the top of the keyboard" (both Pixel pages above). Samsung's version adds a colour: "You can add a name to the folder, as well as change its color by tapping the Folder color icon", and an Add apps to folder button for filling it in one go (Samsung organise page above).

On a Pixel, the grid itself is adjustable: touch and hold an empty space, then Wallpaper & style, then Layout, where you pick an icon size and tap Apply (Pixel home-screen page above). Our tip: fewer, bigger icons per row make a crowded page easier to read.

A layout that stays tidy

Our view, not a vendor's: let the list do the sorting and keep the home screen for the apps you open daily. With the list alphabetical, anything not on the home screen is two gestures away — swipe up, type the first letters — and the home screen only has to hold what you would otherwise search for several times a day. If some icons should not be on show at all, Samsung can hide apps from both screens, or lock them away in Secure Folder.