How to hide apps on Samsung, and how to find them again

Samsung Galaxy phones can hide apps from your Home and Apps screens in a few taps, without installing anything. A hidden app stays installed and keeps working, just without an icon. Here's how to hide apps on Samsung, how to find and open hidden apps again, how to unhide them, and how to hide an app so it's locked as well.

The steps follow Samsung's own help for One UI. Menu names can differ slightly between versions and models, and for other brands, here's how to hide apps on any Android phone.

How to hide apps on Samsung

1. Touch and hold an empty spot on your Home screen, then tap Settings.
2. Tap Hide apps on Home and Apps screens.
3. Tap each app you want to hide. Each one moves to the top of the screen, under Hidden apps.
4. Tap Done.

Samsung says hiding an app doesn't remove it from your phone, only its icon, and it works the same way on Galaxy tablets.

How to find hidden apps on Samsung

Samsung's own help points out that hidden apps aren't far away:

• Search. Swipe up to open the Apps screen and type the app's name into the search bar. Hidden apps still show up in the results.
• The hidden list. In the same Hide apps on Home and Apps screens setting, every hidden app is listed at the top.
• Settings and Google Play. Settings → Apps lists every installed app, hidden or not, and so does Google Play's list of apps on your device.

So if you're checking whether someone hid apps on a Samsung phone, those places will show you. For other phones, and for spy apps, see how to find hidden apps on Android.

How to open hidden apps on Samsung

You don't need to unhide an app to use it. Search for it on the Apps screen and tap it in the results.

How to unhide apps on Samsung

1. Touch and hold an empty spot on your Home screen and tap Settings.
2. Tap Hide apps on Home and Apps screens.
3. Under Hidden apps, tap the red minus icon on each app you want back, then tap Done.

The app goes back on your Apps screen.

Hiding isn't locking

Hiding only takes away an icon, so it keeps an app out of a casual glance and nothing more:

• Anyone who searches your Apps screen finds a hidden app, and can open it.
• A hidden app still runs, so its notifications can give it away.
• Settings and Google Play still list it by name.

Samsung has no built-in app lock yet either, as our guide to locking apps on Samsung explains.

Hide and lock an app with Secure Folder

For an app nobody else should open, Secure Folder does both jobs. It holds its own copy of an app behind its own PIN, pattern, password or fingerprint, and Secure Folder itself can be hidden. It's Samsung's counterpart to what other Android phones call Private space, and our Secure Folder guide covers setting it up.

1. Open Secure Folder, tap the plus icon, pick the app and tap Add. Sign in to the copy, and uninstall the original if you don't need it.
2. Hide Secure Folder: open the Quick Settings panel and tap Secure Folder. The same button brings it back.

If Secure Folder ever goes missing, here's how to bring it back. For photos rather than apps, see how to hide photos on Samsung.

Hiding a vault app

Hiding a vault app's icon has the same weakness as hiding any app: a search finds it. Hidey takes a different approach. Rather than vanishing, it can sit in plain sight as a working calculator, and the calculator disguise is free. Anyone who opens it gets a calculator; only your PIN followed by = opens the vault.

Settings and Google Play still list Hidey by its real name, which is why the photos, videos and files inside are encrypted, not just out of sight. Each one is encrypted on your phone, and the original is deleted once the encrypted copy is checked, so it's gone from Gallery and My Files too. For other ways to make an app look like something else, see how to disguise an app, and for how vaults work, what a vault app is.