Short answer: Apple’s Launchpad does not have a true hide-app feature. You can move apps into folders, but if you want apps to stay installed while disappearing from your launch grid, you need a launcher that supports hidden apps.
Not in the way most people mean it. If you want an app to stay installed on your Mac, but disappear from Launchpad, Apple’s Launchpad does not provide a real hide option.
Launchpad lets you open apps, search for apps, move icons, and create folders. It can also delete some App Store apps. But it does not have a simple “hide this app” control.
The closest workaround is to put apps you rarely use into a folder, then move that folder to the last Launchpad page.
That can make Launchpad feel cleaner, but it is only hiding clutter one level deep. The folder is still visible, the apps are still inside it, and new helper apps or uninstallers may appear later.
On macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple removed Launchpad. That means there is no Launchpad grid to clean up in the first place.
You can use Spotlight or the newer Apps experience to open apps. Those are useful, but they are not the same as a Launchpad-style grid where you decide which apps should stay visible.
KidoX is useful when what you really want is simple: keep a Launchpad-style grid, but remove the apps you do not want to see every day.
With KidoX Pro, hiding an app only hides it from the KidoX grid. The app stays installed. KidoX does not move it, uninstall it, or change the original app bundle.
This is helpful for printer utilities, vendor updaters, VPN tools, uninstallers, old apps, beta apps, and anything else you need occasionally but do not want in your daily launcher.
If you only need a quick cleanup on macOS 14 or 15, make a folder for rarely used apps and move it out of the way.
If you want apps to stay installed but disappear from your launch grid, use KidoX. That is the actual hide-app workflow Launchpad never had.