How to Hide Apps on Android Phone in Pakistan (2026): Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Infinix & More

By Auraz Tech Editorial Team | October 2026

There are plenty of ordinary reasons to hide an app on your Android phone. You share your phone with younger siblings or your kids and do not want them opening your banking app. A friend borrows your phone to make a call and scrolls through your home screen. You keep a dating app, a health app or a second WhatsApp that is simply nobody else's business. Or you are just tired of looking at pre-installed apps you never open. Whatever the reason, you usually do not need to download anything to hide apps — Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Vivo, OnePlus and most Infinix and Tecno phones sold in Pakistan already include a hide-apps feature, but every brand puts it in a different place and calls it a different name. This guide collects them all in one place: the built-in method for each major brand, what to do if your phone has no hide option, and — just as important — what hiding an app does not protect you from, so you do not get a false sense of security.

First, Understand What Hiding an App Actually Does

On Android, hiding an app almost always means only one thing: its icon disappears from the home screen and the app drawer. That is it. The app is still installed, still takes up storage, still runs in the background if it is designed to, and still sends notifications unless you silence it separately. Anyone who opens Settings > Apps, checks the Play Store, or looks at storage usage can still see it listed there. Hiding is a curtain, not a lock.

That distinction decides which method you should use:

• If you just want a cleaner home screen or to keep casual eyes off an app, hiding the icon is enough.
• If the app holds money, photos or private chats, hiding alone is not enough. Pair it with a lock — a PIN, fingerprint or face unlock on the app itself, plus your phone's screen lock. Our guide on locking apps on Android covers that side properly.
• If you want the app gone from daily life entirely but not deleted, disabling it (covered below) is stronger than hiding: a disabled app cannot run at all until you re-enable it.

Keep that in mind as you read the brand methods below. None of them encrypt the app or make it invisible to someone who knows Android settings.

Samsung: Hide Apps from the Home Screen or Use Secure Folder

Samsung gives you two different tools, and they suit different needs. The quick one hides icons; the stronger one, Secure Folder, keeps a separate locked copy of apps and files.

Option 1: Hide apps in Home Screen Settings

1. Long-press an empty area of the home screen and tap Settings, or go to Settings > Home screen.
2. Tap Hide apps on Home and Apps screens.
3. Select the apps you want to hide, then tap Done. Their icons vanish from both the home screen and the app drawer.
4. To bring an app back, return to the same screen and deselect it.

This method hides the icon only. Notifications can still appear, so if a hidden chat app buzzes on your lock screen, the secret is out. Silence its notifications separately in Settings > Notifications > App notifications.

Option 2: Secure Folder (the stronger Samsung option)

1. Go to Settings > Biometrics and security > Secure Folder and sign in with your Samsung account.
2. Choose a lock type — PIN, pattern, password or fingerprint — that is different from your main screen lock if you want real separation.
3. Open Secure Folder and tap Add apps to move copies of apps inside it. Apps in Secure Folder get their own separate data: a second WhatsApp or gallery inside the folder does not share content with the version outside it.
4. To make the folder itself invisible, go to Secure Folder settings and turn off Show icon on Apps screen, then open it later from Settings > Biometrics and security > Secure Folder or via a Quick Settings tile.

Secure Folder is the right choice for banking apps, private photos and work apps on a shared phone. The trade-off is that apps inside it use extra storage for their separate data, and you must remember the folder lock — Samsung cannot recover it for you if you forget it.

Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco: Hidden Apps in Security Settings

Xiaomi's MIUI and HyperOS have one of the most straightforward hide features, and it works the same way on Redmi and Poco phones, which are hugely popular in Pakistan.

1. Open Settings > Apps > App lock, or open the Security app and tap App lock. Set an App lock password if asked.
2. Tap the Hidden apps tab at the top.
3. Turn on the toggle next to each app you want to hide. The icons disappear from the home screen and app drawer immediately.
4. To open a hidden app, spread two fingers apart (pinch out) on the home screen, enter your App lock password, and the hidden apps appear. To unhide, return to the Hidden apps tab and turn the toggle off.

Two Xiaomi quirks worth knowing. First, on some models the Hidden apps tab only appears after you set up App lock — if you cannot find it, set the lock first. Second, hidden apps can still show notifications; turn those off per app in Settings > Notifications if privacy matters. If your Xiaomi phone also feels sluggish with many hidden or background apps, our guide on stopping apps running in the background helps there too.

Oppo, Realme and OnePlus: App Lock, Hide, and Hidden Space

Oppo, Realme and OnePlus share the same ColorOS / Realme UI / OxygenOS family, so their methods rhyme — but the names differ by model and Android version.

Oppo and Realme

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > App lock and set a privacy password.
2. Select the app, then turn on Hide Home Screen Icon (on some models it is labelled Hide app icon or Hide from Home screen).
3. Set an access code — a number starting and ending with #, such as #1234#. The icon disappears from the home screen and drawer.
4. To open the hidden app, open the Phone dialler and type the access code. That is the only way in, so do not forget the code — and do not use an obvious one like your birth year.

On older Oppo and Realme phones the same option lives under Settings > Security > App Encryption. If neither path exists on your model, the launcher method below is your fallback.

OnePlus: Hidden Space

1. Open the app drawer and swipe right to open Hidden Space (on older OxygenOS versions, swipe right from the left edge of the drawer).
2. Tap the + button and choose the apps to hide. They move into Hidden Space and disappear from the main drawer.
3. To protect Hidden Space itself, tap the three-dot menu inside it and turn on Enable password so it asks for a PIN or fingerprint before opening.
4. To unhide, long-press the app inside Hidden Space and tap Unhide.

Vivo and iQOO: Hide Icons in the Launcher

Vivo's Funtouch OS and iQOO phones hide apps through the launcher rather than a security menu:

1. Long-press an empty area of the home screen and tap Home settings, or go to Settings > Home screen, lock screen & wallpaper > Home settings.
2. Look for Hide app icons (on some models: Hide apps). Select the apps to hide and confirm.
3. Hidden apps can usually be found again by swiping up with two fingers on the home screen or by revisiting the same Hide app icons screen — the exact gesture varies by Funtouch OS version, so the settings screen is the reliable route back.

Vivo also offers iManager > App encryption to lock apps with a password. As with Samsung, hiding plus locking beats hiding alone for anything sensitive.

Infinix, Tecno and itel: Where the Hide Option Lives

Infinix, Tecno and itel are among the best-selling phones in Pakistan, but their hide feature is the least consistent — it depends on the HiOS or XOS version on your exact model. Try these in order:

1. Home screen settings: long-press an empty area of the home screen, open Home Settings or Launcher Settings, and look for Hide apps.
2. Settings > App Management: some models list a Hide apps or App hide option here.
3. XHide (Infinix): on some Infinix models, open the XHide app from the app drawer, set a password, and add apps to it. XHide works like a vault: hidden apps live inside it and need the password to open.
4. Phone Master: on Tecno phones, the Phone Master app sometimes carries the app-hide or app-lock feature under its privacy tools.

If none of these exist on your model, do not waste an afternoon hunting: the third-party launcher method in the next section works on every Android phone, including Infinix and Tecno, and is the standard fallback.

No Built-In Option? Use a Launcher or Disable the App

Method 1: A launcher with hide-apps support

A launcher replaces your home screen and app drawer, and several reputable ones include a hide-apps setting. Nova Launcher (paid Prime version), Microsoft Launcher and Lawnchair all offer it. The steps are similar everywhere:

1. Install the launcher from the Play Store, open it, and set it as your default home app when Android asks.
2. Open the launcher settings, go to App drawer > Hide apps, and tick the apps to hide.
3. To find a hidden app later, return to the same launcher setting — the list is always there.

The honest downside: a launcher only hides icons, exactly like the built-in options, and a badly chosen launcher can slow a budget phone. Pick one with a large install base and recent updates, and skip launchers that demand accessibility access or device-admin rights just to hide icons — hiding icons does not need those permissions.

Method 2: Disable an app you do not use

For pre-installed apps you never open — the duplicate gallery, the carrier app, the game you did not ask for — disabling is cleaner than hiding:

1. Go to Settings > Apps, tap the app, and tap Disable. If Disable is greyed out, the app is essential to the system and cannot be disabled.
2. The icon disappears, the app cannot run, and it stops using battery and data. Its data stays on the phone, so re-enabling it later restores it as it was.
3. To re-enable, return to Settings > Apps, tap See all apps, filter by Disabled, and tap Enable.

Disabling is also the right answer for bloatware clutter. Our bloatware removal guide explains which pre-installed apps are safe to disable on each brand.

Method 3: Guest mode or a second profile for a borrowed phone

If the real problem is someone else using your phone, hiding apps one by one is the wrong tool. Instead, hand them a guest session: go to Settings > System > Multiple users (on Samsung: Settings > Accounts and backup > Users, where available) and switch to Guest before handing the phone over. The guest sees a fresh phone with none of your apps, photos or accounts — and your apps never needed hiding at all. For children, the dedicated route is better still: our parental controls guide for Pakistan sets up a supervised profile properly.

What Hiding Apps Does NOT Do: The Privacy Limits

• Notifications still leak. A hidden WhatsApp or banking app can still buzz, show a preview on the lock screen, or appear in the notification shade. Turn off lock-screen notification content in Settings > Notifications and silence the app itself.
• Settings, Apps still lists everything. Anyone who opens Settings can see every installed app, hidden or not, with its storage and data usage.
• The Play Store still shows it. Open the Play Store, search the app name, and it shows Open instead of Install — proof it is on the phone.
• Voice assistants and search can still open it. Saying the app name to Google Assistant, or typing it in the phone's search bar, may still launch it even when the icon is hidden.
• Hiding does not stop tracking. A hidden app can still collect data and show ads in the background exactly as before. If tracking is your worry, read our guide on stopping apps tracking you instead.

The practical rule: hide for tidiness, lock for privacy, and use a guest profile for other people. Combine the three and you get real privacy instead of the appearance of it.

How to Unhide Apps: The Quick Reference

• Samsung: Settings > Home screen > Hide apps on Home and Apps screens, then deselect. For Secure Folder, open the folder and use Add apps in reverse — move the app back out or remove it from the folder.
• Xiaomi / Redmi / Poco: Security app > App lock > Hidden apps tab, turn the toggle off. Or pinch out on the home screen with two fingers and enter the App lock password.
• Oppo / Realme: Settings > Privacy > App lock, select the app, turn off Hide Home Screen Icon.
• OnePlus: Hidden Space > long-press the app > Unhide.
• Vivo / iQOO: Home settings > Hide app icons, deselect the app.
• Launcher method: launcher settings > App drawer > Hide apps, untick the app.
• Disabled apps: Settings > Apps > Disabled filter > Enable.

If you hid an app and cannot remember how, the fastest rescue is universal: open the Play Store, search the app name, and tap Open. It will launch even while hidden, and from there you can retrace the method you used.

FAQ

How do I hide apps on Android without downloading another app?

Most Android phones already have a built-in way. Samsung phones use Secure Folder or Home Screen Settings, Xiaomi phones have Hidden Apps in Security settings, Oppo and Realme offer App Lock with a hide option, and OnePlus has Hidden Space in the app drawer. Open your launcher or security settings first before installing anything from the Play Store.

Does hiding an app delete it or stop its notifications?

No. Hiding an app only removes its icon from the home screen and app drawer. The app stays installed, keeps running, and can still send notifications unless you also turn notifications off for it. If you want it fully silent, hide it and disable its notifications in Settings, Apps.

How do I find a hidden app again on my Android phone?

Go back to the same place you hid it: the launcher settings, security settings, or Secure Folder where you moved it. You can also search for the app name in Settings, Apps, or open it from the Play Store page, which shows an Open button for installed apps. On Samsung, hidden apps inside Secure Folder appear only after you unlock the folder.

Can someone still find my hidden apps?

Yes, if they know where to look. Hidden apps still show up in Settings, Apps, in the Play Store library, and in storage usage lists. Hiding an icon stops casual snooping, but it is not encryption and it is not a vault. For banking apps, photos, or anything truly sensitive, use a lock with a PIN or fingerprint and your phone screen lock, not hiding alone.

Is it safe to use a third-party app hider from the Play Store?

Use your phone built-in option first. Many third-party hiders are actually launchers or vault apps that ask for broad permissions, show ads, and can stop working after an Android update. If you do use one, pick a well-reviewed app from a known developer, check exactly which permissions it asks for, and never grant it accessibility or device-admin access unless you understand why it needs it.

How do I hide apps on Infinix, Tecno or itel phones in Pakistan?

On most Infinix, Tecno and itel phones, open Settings, then look for App Management or XHide, or long-press the home screen and open Home Settings. Some models hide apps through the Phone Master or HiOS launcher settings instead of a single named feature. If your model has no hide option, a reputable third-party launcher with a hide-apps setting is the usual fallback.

Auraz Tech Editorial Team — we test every guide on real devices and keep our tutorials updated.