No, Google did not reach deep into your personal device to hold some apps hostage until you stop using DuckDuckGo. You accidentally hid or deleted the home page yourself. There’s no grand conspiracy, and it’s easy to recover what you’ve lost. Now, tap the dots at the bottom of your screen to open up a similarly wiggly display of all your home screens. You can press on one and drag it to rearrange the order, but if you want to hide or delete one, tap the check mark under it. If you see one that’s unchecked (like the one holding your lost Google Maps), that means it’s hidden—tap the empty circle to put it back. To go a step further and delete an entire home page, touch the minus icon that appears after you remove the check mark. If you choose to delete a home page, your apps won’t disappear—they’ll still be available from your App Library, and iOS tells you as much. Confirm Remove to trash the whole page.
How to recover your deleted app shortcuts
But to put an app back on your home screen, you’ll have to go to the App Library. Once there, search for the program, long-press on it, and select Add to Home Screen. That’s it. And you didn’t even need Google Maps to guide you.
