I am interested in seeing the official answer to this as well.
As for my experience, I have not found an easy way of doing this as of yet.
My honest opinion is that we need everything that shows up on the side bar to be removed from the side bar, and built as modules. This would allow us to turn everything on and off as we please, and place it all anywhere we want.
It would also be nice to get options in the EasySocial toolbar module to turn each entry on or off.

Thanks Mark!

Well with that said Justin, to do what you want to do:
/dashboard/default.php
comment out line 33

<?php echo $this->includeTemplate( 'site/dashboard/sidebar.apps' ); ?>

/toolbar/default.profile.php
comment out lines 89-93

<li>

<a href="<?php echo FRoute::apps();?>">

<i class="ies-cube ies-small mr-5"></i> <?php echo JText::_( 'COM_EASYSOCIAL_TOOLBAR_APPS' );?>

</a>

</li>

This is in theory. I have not tested it. But I see no reason this would not do what you want.

My advice would be to create a new theme and put your modified files in the new theme.

Thanks Jthm0138,

I added a css class to the APPS elements in both php files and used "display: none;" in my template's custom stylesheet, and also added both files to my template's HTML folder. That way I simply remove the css if I decide to enable Apps down the line.

Thanks for sharing guys