You can have multiple motives to hide apps on your Android smartphone. One such reason could be securing your confidential data on your smartphone. Have you ever thought how easy could it be to get your banking details when someone gets access to your smartphone? They can get to your contacts, post embarrassing photos on Facebook account, purchase things on your account and more. As technology furtherance has made the smartphone an individual’s identity, therefore hiding apps have become important to keep your private life and confidential data safe.
In this post, we will guide how to hide apps on Android to keep your private data hidden and secure.
Ways To Hide Apps On Android
Deactivate Pre-Install Apps
If you have the latest version of Android, you can hide an app by disabling them. To make them completely disappear, you can delete the icon so that it will not be shown on screen until you enable it. Follow these steps to do so:
- Locate Settings app from Home screen.
- Now go to Applications.
- Locate Applications Manager.
- Then tap All Apps.
- Select an app that you want to hide and tap Disable.
This will hide the app from your home screen.
Note: If the app that you want to disable is not a preinstalled or native app, then you will get Uninstall option.
In case you want to locate the app that you disabled, you can locate it under the Disabled section.
Hide Apps Using Launchers
By hiding an app, you can secure it from sneaky eyes, one of the ways is to get a non-stock launcher. There are a lot of options available. Some of the popular options for application hider for Android are discussed below:
Nova Launcher
Nova Launcher is one of the popular launchers which can help you access a lot of features to make your experience better on Android. The launcher can help you efficiently hide apps, set custom actions for swiping app shortcuts, access scroll effects like Wipe, Throw and more. It also allows you to set gestures such as pinch, double tap, swipe to get your favorite apps.
You need a Prime upgrade to unlock the hide apps features. Once you get Nova Launcher premium version, you need to launch the app, then head to its Settings. Under Settings, App & Widget drawers. Navigate to Drawer groups and then Locate Hide apps to conceal the apps you want.
Get It Here
Apex Launcher
Apex Launcher is another good alternative to hide apps and a good thing about it is available for free. The app comes with themes and icon packs to customize the interface. You get to use gestures, quick search, backup & restore options as well. Once you get Apex launcher on your Android, you need to launch the app, go to Settings. Under Settings, look for Drawer Settings and then Hidden apps option to customize what apps to show on app drawer.
Hide Apps With AppLock
Another great app to hide apps on Android is AppLock. The app is available on Google Play Store. The app is quite popular with millions of downloads. You can lock apps and features such as Bluetooth as well. In nutshell, you can lock any of the Android elements.
You can create lock profiles such as work, and home and these options will activate as per set time and location fed. Applock provides you with an option to set a cover resembling a warning message, “ the app has stopped working.” You can set other warnings as well.
Furthermore, there are options to select hide an app, avert uninstallation, a delay in locking an app again, power saving mode and more.
Hide Apps In Safe Box
You can use Safe box to hide your apps and other files on Android. You can lock your contacts, documents, videos, apps and pictures on Android. You can lock apps such as Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp and others. It allows you to lock your pictures in a vault along with confidential documents. With all of these features, you can also hide your photos, videos in a vault.
You can encrypt SMS, photos, videos and audios. You can also send SMS automatically, all you need to do is setup content, the receiver’s number, date and time on which you want to send a message. It can also help you hide a contact and you can make calls and send messages to the contact privately. It also acts as a password manager so that you can store your credentials in it.
Hiding apps Using Applock developed by DoMobile
Applock by developers DoMobile is app locking tool which is available for free on Google Play Store. The app has a simple and easy to use interface. Launch it and set a password. You can hide SMS, movies, Photos, and apps. Your data on your phone stays secure and kept away from hackers. You can select themes and colors to make it look attractive. You can also change the languages of the app. You can auto lock or unlock the apps or other content by setting a time lock and location lock.
So, these are the apps & launchers which can be used to hide and lock not only apps but your confidential data and personal photos. This is not the only option to secure your personal data, it is recommended to always keep an external backup of data.
Now, hide your data or apps using these apps and keep the intruders at bay. What do you think? Are there any other methods that you prefer? if that’s the case, mention them in the comments.
