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Hiding apps on your iPhone can declutter your home screen and boost privacy and security. This can keep these apps away from prying eyes (dating or banking apps, for example) or hide sensitive content from your children. It could also reduce your screen time by removing the temptation to use them. If you want to enhance your privacy further, use data removal services to delete your sensitive info from the internet.
Keep reading to learn how to hide apps on your iPhone and get some expert privacy and security tips.
Hiding iPhone apps has several important benefits — from organizing your home screen to securing your iPhone. The security part is especially relevant if other people (including your children) can access your device. In the sections below, we’ll show you how to hide single or multiple apps and how to find them afterward.
Hiding apps from your iPhone’s home screen won’t make them completely invisible; they remain accessible in the App Library and can appear in search results. With that caveat out of the way, here’s how to hide apps from your home screen:
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If you want to hide multiple apps, concealing an entire home screen page is the best choice. You can keep frequently used apps visible and hide all the rest. Here’s how to do it:
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The chosen page will no longer appear on your iPhone’s home screen. To bring it back, repeat the same steps and click the circle under the page again.
At this point, people can still use the search feature to find your hidden apps. Apart from boosting your privacy, removing irrelevant or infrequently used apps from search results will streamline your user experience.
Here’s how to do it:
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This process won’t remove the app from your phone. So, if you’re looking to free up space, it won’t help. If we’re dealing with a malicious app, hiding it won’t remove malware from your iPhone; you’ll need to delete the app completely for that.
Finding all the apps is as easy as hiding them. Simply go to your App Library and select the ones you need.
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If you’ve hidden the app through the Siri & Search function, it still won’t appear in searches. You’ll need to re-enable this feature in the Show App in Search section.
Boosting your privacy can also include hiding specific files (mainly images and videos). Perhaps they contain confidential projects you don’t want to mix with family photos. Whatever the reason, here’s how to hide files on your iPhone:
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Hiding apps isn’t the only way to enhance your privacy and security. We also recommend adopting some good cybersecurity habits. The most important ones are:
Every app, service, or website you use will record your data. These logs can include your personally identifiable information (PII), location, legal and financial records, browsing history, religious beliefs, political affiliations, and more.
Data brokers collect publicly available (but also privately sourced) data and sell it to third parties. This data is mainly used for marketing but can also end up in the hands of criminals. If it does, you can fall victim to anything from phishing scams to identity theft.
That’s why we recommend using a reliable service that will contact data brokers for you and remove your info from their databases. The best options include:
Yes, you can hide individual apps from your home screen or make entire home screen pages invisible. You can also prevent apps from showing in search results. However, you can’t conceal them in the App Library.
You can hide your files, like videos and photos, by going to the Photos section and choosing what you want to hide, then confirming your selection.
The iPhone doesn’t have a secret folder, but you can get this utility with apps like Secure Folder Lock Photo Vault.
You can hide apps and files on your iPhone in just a few steps. Hiding content can streamline your user experience and enhance your privacy and security. However, it’s important to remember that hiding apps and files won’t free up space; you’ll need to remove them entirely to do that. With so many apps tracking and transmitting your data, we also recommend using data removal services to minimize your digital footprint.
Removes your data from the web to avoid scams, spam and stalkers
100+ million successful opt-out removals
Provides continued removals every three months
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