How to hide files, apps and notifications on Android phones

In addition, these security methods are available in most smartphones as they also depend a lot on the manufacturer’s customization level. This way, some users will be able to hide what they want from their mobile device without the need for third-party apps. Therefore, we will explain how you can hide different files what’s on your phone.

Hide your mobile apps

One of the great features that not everyone knows about is that we can hide apps so that only we can continue to use them as if nothing else. However, other people who are looking at or using your cell phone will have a hard time seeing them. Moreover, today we find two ways to hide apps on android mobile devices … Although, unfortunately, not all of them are available.

One of the first ways we suggest you secure apps that you have on your Android mobile phone that you don’t want anyone to see is by using different user profiles. In case you didn’t know, each user profile has its own settings and applications. Thus, applications available in one user profile will not be present in another.

This way, if we install the app in a specific profile and then create a second one, the app we just installed won’t show up in the second profile. But you must keep in mind that you must create this second user before downloading the software. To do this, you also need to be aware that the menus will change depending on the manufacturer of your cell phone. However, you will need to go to Settings> Multiple Users> Add User. Then a window will appear in which we will inform that each user logs in separately. After we have read it, we must click “Accept”. In addition, this new user profile will be completely blank, so only the tools that are pre-installed on the mobile device will be displayed.

As a second option, which will depend on the level of personalization of your mobile phone, this is an exclusive feature for hide apps … In this case, we will have an additional method for hiding simpler applications, with which we will not need to create a secondary profile. Two well-known brands that have this feature are Huawei and Samsung.

If you want to hide apps on the Huawei terminal, you can do so by creating a private space separate from the usual one. To do this, you must go to Settings> Privacy> Personal Space and then click Enable. On the contrary, in Samsung mobile devices, it will allow us to hide them directly. The first thing we need to do is go to home screen settings> Hide apps … Once inside, we will add those that we need, but which are not visible to the naked eye.

Folder trick

In case we want to protect folders or files on our mobile phone without having to download a third-party application, we will make sure that we have a file explorer. Some customization levels already have their own manager, so you don’t need to install it.

In addition, we are faced with a rather simple trick and that this is not entirely new, but today it is still unknown to many users. So if you have this type of app installed by default on your phone, it’s time to find out if it allows us hide files … If not, you’ll have to resort to a third-party app. Otherwise, you can continue.

So, it’s time to do a simple trick – rename folders or files by adding a period at the beginning of the name. In this extremely simple way, the system itself will understand that this file should not be visible to everyone. Hence, the only way to access them is through the file manager itself.

Of course, as long as you have view hidden files activated. Otherwise, it will be almost impossible to find them in our terminal, since files or folders will be completely hidden. For example, if we rename a folder to “Images”, all we have to do is name it “. Images ”, you will need to confirm. With this simple method, we can make the file disappear in just a few seconds.

Hide notifications

There is no doubt that notifications are an essential part of any Android mobile device and for everyone. Mainly because it’s a good way for us to instantly know about any notification that comes to us over the phone. The problem is that the simple fact that messages or any notification appear on the lock screen can compromise privacy for many users. So, perhaps, it would be best to hide them so that they do not appear in plain sight.

Because if we are not careful, it will only be enough to turn on the panel of our mobile device so that anyone can receive our messages or other types of notifications. Which is very annoying. Fortunately, in Android, we can manage these notifications so they don’t appear on the lock screen.

In the Google operating system, we will have the ability to configure visibility of messages and notifications on the lock screen. That is, it offers us the ability to prevent these messages from being displayed on this panel, thereby preventing anyone from reading them without our permission. In addition to customizing them, it will be really quick and easy as it will come from our Android’s own settings.

There are several alternatives in this regard, from leaving notifications to completely hiding the message. Thus, on mobile devices with this software system, we can choose the option that best suits our needs. To do this, you need to follow a series of steps:

• Open your phone settings.
• Enter the notifications section.
• Click on Lock screen notifications …
• Select the option you want. Usually there are three: show, show notification and do not show their content, or show nothing. The second option is usually used most often for the simple convenience of continuing to figure out what types of notifications are reaching us without displaying their content. Thus, we do not allow other people to read it. Although some terminals may have fewer options.

Be aware that depending on the setting level and Android version, this configuration may be located in a different section of the terminal settings. Therefore, if it does not appear in the previous steps, you will need to try to access the Security and Privacy section, where there is a section of the lock screen where you must allow us to manage notifications and their content.

Save your images and videos securely

If you use Google Photos on your mobile, you can hide photos and videos that you don’t want others to see. In addition, it is clear that you will not lose them, since they will continue to be available. To do this, we will only need to look for those multimedia files which we want to hide and tap the upper left corner of each thumbnail you want to hide. Then select the three dots that appear in the upper-right side of the panel and choose Move to File.

After that, the mobile phone will inform us that the selected photos and videos will be archived. If we make a mistake, we can undo this action immediately. To access these files, we have to go to the Library located in the lower right side of the panel and click on “Archives”. If you want them to reappear normally, move them to the main folder by clicking the three vertical dots that are in the upper right corner and click Unzip …

If you don’t use Google Photos and only use the default gallery on your mobile, the truth is that more and more people are choosing this option on their smartphones. While this is not something positive for those looking to hide images from the gallery, as there is no one-size-fits-all option for all Androids, it will also largely depend on the smartphone manufacturer itself and its software.