If you want to find the best app hider for iPhone & Android, just ask teenagers. Seriously, they know all the best ones because they love to hide apps from the prying eyes of parents.
Haven’t got a teenager handy? That’s okay. I’ve got the answer too: there are apps to hide your apps and hacks to use when there aren’t.
But First, Why Hide Apps?
Privacy. Chances are your significant other, best friend, and maybe even your parents know the passcode to unlock your phone. You probably gave it to them when you wanted them to see something on your phone but you were too lazy to unlock it and then give it to them. (This happens to me if I have too many margaritas…)
But we all like our privacy and I bet there are things on your phone that you don’t want your significant other, best friend, or mom and dad to know.
You could just change your passcode, but surely you’ll give it to them again. (Those margaritas are just so tasty.)
The better solution is to hide any apps that might hold incriminating information. If you don’t think you have incriminating information on your phone, think again. We all do. It’s juicier than your diary.
Let’s look at a few scenarios:
You’re a college student home on Christmas break. Do you really want Mom finding your Tinder profile?
Your wife’s birthday is coming up. You’ve done all your shopping on your phone and don’t want her to discover her birthday surprises early.
You’ve got a set of apps you can’t delete from your phone that you don’t use and you’re sick of scrolling through them.
Your kids are playing games on your phone, but then accidentally open Skype and call someone you really don’t want them talking to like your boss.
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So, How Do You Hide Apps?
There are actually many ways to hide apps ranging from smartphone hacks to apps. You can hide anything you want on your phone from messages to photos to apps if you know how. The simplest way is to download the apps made just for hiding things, but those aren’t always enough.
Best App Hider For Android
The best app hider for Android is called, simply: App Hider.
App Hider keeps any apps you choose completely hidden. The icons won’t show up on your home screen and you need to enter a passcode to pull them up.
You can hide everything from Messages to Photos to Geometry Dash.
Just download the app Google Play Store and follow the setup prompts. You’ll need to choose a passcode and adjust a few settings. App Hider is an alternate Home Launcher so once activated it becomes the primary interface you use when looking at your phone.
If you hand your phone to a friend, he/she can’t see App Hider. They just see the apps you’re not trying to hide.
You access App Hider by holding the Apps button on your phone for 5 seconds. It won’t open from a simple tap. Enter your passcode and then you’re in and you can access any apps that you have pulled into App Hider.
Pro tips: Make sure your App Hider passcode is different from your Unlock passcode. Make your App Hider passcode something you’ll remember.
It costs $2, but what’s two bucks in exchange for a sense of privacy? Not much.
Best App Hider For iPhone
iPhone doesn’t have a conveniently named app called App Hider where you can hide all of your apps. It’s difficult to hide an entire app in iOs.
The best thing to do for iPhone is to use third-party apps that will allow you to keep certain things on your phone private and using existing iPhone features to your advantage.
Secret Calculator shows a calculator icon on your phone. When you open it up, it works just like a regular calculator. But when you type in your passcode followed by the % button. A secret world opens up to you where you can store photos, files, and messages far away from prying eyes.
If you want to let kids play games on your phone but not have access to anything else, there’s a built-in feature for that. Set it up by going to Settings then Accessibility to turn on Guided Access. Once Guided Access is enabled, open the app you want to share and triple-click the home button. This will lock the app open. When the kids are done playing, triple click the home button again and type in the Guided Access passcode to restore your phone to full function.
If you don’t mind someone knowing you have third-party apps like Tinder or Snapchat, but you don’t want them to see what you’re up to, then logout whenever you aren’t actively using the app. It might start to feeling annoying after awhile, but it will keep unwanted eyes off your private Snaps and potential dates.
If you absolutely must hide app icons from your home screen, then hide them in a folder. Simply drag all of your apps into a folder and then drag that folder onto an icon screen all by itself. It’s unlocked so if anyone scrolls over to that screen they’ll see it. You can keep curiosity down by naming it something boring like “Receipts” or just forget to name it and leave it as the default name.
If you want to store apps in a folder and lock it, as of right now, you’re out of luck. But hopefully an option to lock individual folders will appear in the near future.
In short…
Keeping your smartphone private is not easy. The best app hider for iPhone & Android is never giving anyone your passcode to unlock your phone in the first place. But since that’s never going to happen as we’re all humans and mostly terrible at keeping secrets, we need other ways to hide private information.
If you’ve got an Android phone, you’re in luck. It’s easy peasy to keep your secrets tucked away.
However, if you’re on iPhone, you might want to start a letter writing campaign to tell Apple we need better privacy functions to hide apps. In the mean time, you’ll have to use several hacks to keep things hidden.
