How to Hide Apps on Your Android Phone: The Complete 2026 Guide

Maybe you hand your phone to a curious child, a friend, or a shopkeeper who needs to make a call — and you would rather they not see your banking app, your private photos, or your work email sitting on the home screen. Or maybe your app drawer is simply overflowing with apps you rarely open. Either way, Android gives you several ways to hide apps, and most of them need no rooting, no paid app, and no technical skill.

The catch is that different phone brands hide the feature in different places, and "hidden" does not always mean what people think it means. This guide covers every reliable method — the built-in options on Samsung, Xiaomi and OnePlus, a method that works on any Android phone, and how to disable apps you cannot uninstall — plus the honest privacy limits of each approach, so you choose the right one instead of a false sense of security.

What Hiding an App Actually Does — and What It Does Not Do

When you hide an app, you remove its icon from the home screen and the app drawer. That is all. The app is still installed, still takes up storage, and — unless you also change its settings — can still send notifications and run in the background. A hidden app also still appears in Settings under Apps, in your Play Store library, and in battery and data usage lists. Anyone who knows where to look can find it in under a minute.

That does not make hiding useless. It is perfect for casual privacy: keeping a banking app out of sight when you hand your phone to someone, decluttering your drawer, or keeping games away from a child who borrows your phone. It is not real security, though. If you need an app genuinely protected from a determined snooper, pair hiding with an app lock (a PIN or fingerprint on launch), or use a secure folder that encrypts the app's data separately. The methods below note which level of protection each one gives.

Method 1: Hide Apps on Samsung

Samsung's One UI has the most straightforward built-in hiding, and it also offers the strongest option of any brand: Secure Folder.

Hide apps from the home screen and app drawer

• Open the app drawer and tap the three-dot menu at the top-right, then tap Settings.
• Tap Hide apps on Home and Apps screens.
• Select the apps you want to hide, then tap Done.
• To unhide, repeat the same steps and deselect the apps.

Secure Folder: the stronger Samsung option

Secure Folder creates a separate, encrypted space on your phone with its own copies of apps — protected by its own PIN, pattern or fingerprint. An app inside Secure Folder does not appear in your normal app drawer at all, and its data is kept apart from the rest of the phone. Set it up under Settings → Biometrics and security → Secure Folder, sign in with your Samsung account, choose a lock type, and then add apps with the + button inside the folder. This is the method to use for banking apps, private photos, or anything you would genuinely not want a borrower to stumble across.

Method 2: Hide Apps on Xiaomi and Redmi

Xiaomi's MIUI and HyperOS bury the feature one level deeper, but it works well once you find it:

• Open Settings → Apps → App lock (on some models it is under Settings → Privacy protection → Hidden apps).
• If you have not set up App lock before, the phone will ask you to create a pattern or PIN.
• Tap the Hidden apps tab at the top of the App lock screen.
• Turn on the toggle next to each app you want to hide.
• Hidden apps are opened by pinching outward (spreading two fingers apart) on the home screen, then entering your App lock pattern.

Xiaomi pairs hiding with a lock automatically: opening a hidden app requires the App lock pattern or fingerprint. That makes it stronger than plain hiding on most other brands, and it is a good reason to use it for banking and messaging apps.

Method 3: Hide Apps on OnePlus (Hidden Space)

OnePlus phones have a dedicated "Hidden Space" — a private section of the app drawer:

• Open the app drawer and swipe right, or swipe right on the home screen, to open Hidden Space.
• Tap the + button and select the apps you want to move there.
• To protect Hidden Space itself, tap the three-dot menu inside it and set a password or fingerprint lock.
• Apps in Hidden Space disappear from the main drawer and home screen, but keep working normally — including notifications, unless you silence them.

On newer OnePlus models running OxygenOS 14 and later, Hidden Space lives in the same place, but the lock option may sit under the three-dot menu as "Enable password". If you cannot find Hidden Space, swipe right from the left edge of the app drawer rather than the home screen — that is where it hides on some versions.

Method 4: Hide Apps on Any Android Phone with a Launcher

Google Pixel phones and many other brands offer no built-in hide feature at all. The universal fix is a third-party launcher — an app that replaces your home screen and app drawer. Two well-established options:

Nova Launcher

• Install Nova Launcher from the Play Store and set it as your default home app when asked.
• Open Nova Settings → App drawer → Hide apps (in the free version this may sit under "Drawer groups" on older builds; the paid Prime version unlocks full hide-app controls).
• Tick the apps to hide. They vanish from the drawer but stay installed and searchable in Settings.

Microsoft Launcher

• Install Microsoft Launcher and set it as default.
• Long-press an empty area of the home screen, tap Launcher Settings → Hidden apps.
• Select the apps to hide. Microsoft Launcher also lets you password-protect the hidden-apps screen itself.

Method 5: Disable Apps You Cannot Uninstall

Pre-installed apps (bloatware) often cannot be uninstalled, but Android lets you disable them, which removes their icons and stops them from running:

• Long-press the app icon and tap App info (or go to Settings → Apps → See all apps and pick it).
• Tap Disable and confirm. The icon disappears from the drawer and home screen.
• To bring it back, return to the same screen and tap Enable.

Disabling is the cleanest option for apps you never use: it frees them from running in the background and declutters your phone at the same time. Note that some core system apps cannot be disabled, and disabling an app you actually rely on (like a system web browser component) can break other apps — if you are unsure, leave it alone.

Hide vs. Lock vs. Guest Mode: Which One Do You Actually Need?

• Hide — best for decluttering and casual privacy. Icon gone, app still fully functional. Good when you lend your phone briefly to someone you trust.
• Lock — best for real privacy on a shared phone. The icon stays visible, but opening the app demands a PIN or fingerprint. Use your brand's App lock (Samsung, Xiaomi) or a reputable app-lock app for banking, gallery and messaging apps.
• Hide + lock together — the strongest casual combination. Xiaomi does this by default for hidden apps; on Samsung, put the app in Secure Folder.
• Guest mode / second user — best when someone else uses your phone regularly. Under Settings → System → Multiple users (on many phones), a guest profile gets a clean phone with none of your apps or data visible at all. This is the right answer for a child who borrows your phone every day.

How to Unhide an App Again

Every method above is reversible from the same place you enabled it: Samsung's "Hide apps" list, Xiaomi's Hidden apps tab, OnePlus Hidden Space (long-press the app and choose "Unhide" or remove it from the space), your launcher's hidden-apps list, or Settings → Apps → Enable for disabled apps. If you forget which method you used, the fastest recovery is universal: open Settings → Apps → See all apps, find the app in the alphabetical list, and tap it — from there you can open it, enable it, or see which launcher or lock is managing it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does hiding an app delete its data?

No. Hiding only removes the icon. Your chats, photos, logins and settings inside the app stay exactly as they were. Only uninstalling or clearing an app's data removes its content.

Do hidden apps still send notifications?

Usually yes. Hiding does not silence an app. If a hidden messaging app buzzes while someone holds your phone, the secret is out — so open the app's notification settings and silence it too, or use Do Not Disturb when lending the phone.

Can I hide apps on a Google Pixel phone?

Pixel's stock launcher has no built-in hide option. Use a third-party launcher (Method 4 above), disable apps you never use, or use Android's multiple-users feature for a clean guest profile.

Will a hidden app reappear after an update or restart?

No. Hiding survives restarts and app updates. It resets only if you switch launchers, factory-reset the phone, or manually unhide the app.

Does a factory reset unhide everything?

A factory reset wipes the phone entirely — hidden apps, locks and launchers all go with it. That is also why a reset is the last-resort fix if you lock yourself out of a hidden-apps screen and cannot remember the pattern.

Conclusion

Hiding apps on Android is easy once you know where your brand put the switch: Samsung's hide-apps list or Secure Folder, Xiaomi's Hidden apps tab, OnePlus Hidden Space, or a trusted launcher on any other phone. Just remember the golden rule — hiding is for casual privacy, not real security. For anything that truly matters, add a lock on top, or keep it in a separate profile or secure folder. Used that way, your phone stays tidy for you and boring for everyone else — which is exactly the point.

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