Hi everyone, I'm exploring an app idea that would help users organize their Home Screen, the app would move or rearrange other apps' icons on the user's behalf (for example, auto-grouping apps or repositioning them based on how often they're used). My question is twofold:
Is there currently any entitlement, API, or permission that lets an app programmatically move or rearrange other apps' icons on the Home Screen? From what I can tell, the sandbox model prevents an app from touching anything outside its own container, so I suspect this isn't possible today but I'd be glad to be corrected if I've missed something. If it genuinely isn't possible, is this something Apple would consider adding? For instance, a user-granted permission (similar to how Notifications, Screen Time, or Accessibility permissions work) that the user could explicitly enable to let a trusted app manage their Home Screen layout. The user would stay in full control and could revoke it at any time.
I understand there are solid privacy and security reasons behind the current restrictions, so I'm not looking for a workaround, I'm asking whether a supported, user-consented path could exist. Has anyone run into this or found any official guidance? And if this is better filed as a feature request through Feedback Assistant, I'm happy to do that too. Thanks!