Hiding apps on your iPhone ISN’T foolproof – three massive clues give away your sneaky ‘locked’ secrets

HIDING apps on your iPhone is a genius way to protect your privacy – but it's not perfect. There are several clues that will give away that you've hidden apps. In fact, the names of the iPhone apps you've hidden will be visible, if the person knows where to look.

Back in September, Apple dished out the free iOS 18 update to millions of iPhone owners. You can check if you've got it (or can get it) by going to Settings > General > Software Update. One of the big perks of iOS 18 was the option to lock and even hide your apps.

For instance, you might want to lock a messaging app so that someone using your iPhone can't go into it. They'd need to know your iPhone passcode to get in – or pass a Face ID or Touch ID check, which wouldn't work. To lock an app, you'd just find it on the Home Screen, touch and hold the icon, and then choose Require Face ID > Require Face ID.

But you can go one step further and actually hide an app. That means it won't appear anywhere (or rather, almost anywhere) on your iPhone. Apps that you hide will be dumped in a special Hidden folder. You can find this folder by scrolling all the way to the far-right Home Screen panel – then scrolling down to the bottom of the App Library.

The Hidden app will be there, but won't show what's inside. In fact, you can't even tell if there are any apps in the Hidden folder. It will always just look like an empty square. It's only when you tap on the Hidden folder and pass a check (Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode) that its contents will be revealed.

To hide an app, you'd want to press on an app icon, then choose Require Face ID > Hide and Require Face ID. The app will no longer show up on your iPhone, won't appear as recently used, and can't be searched using Spotlight on your iPhone. If you try to open a hidden app with Siri, it won't work.

But there are some clues that will give away hidden apps. Here are the devices that can get the new iOS 18 update. Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun. Apple warns iPhone owners that there are at least three places that an app's name will be visible. The first is in your iPhone's Screen Time settings.

This is used to track how much you're using your iPhone (so you can decide if you need a digital detox), and it will show which apps are being used. And yes, hidden apps will appear here. There's a way around this: turn Screen Time off. Secondly, it'll appear in your iPhone's Battery settings.

Specifically, you'll find it under Battery Usage By App, which is the big list of apps that have used iPhone battery recently. So if you've used a Hidden app at all recently, it'll appear there. The only reason it wouldn't show up on this list is if you hadn't used the hidden app recently.

And thirdly, hidden apps can show up in your App Store purchase history. That includes free apps: it still counts as a "purchase" even if you didn't actually pay anything. The good news is that you need to go through an unlock check before accessing purchase history.

But you would need to be mindful that if you're ever scrolling down the history in front of someone, hidden apps can appear on that list. So be careful if you're in a situation where you need to hide apps, but someone has access to your iPhone. Although hiding apps might seem safe, it's not totally secure – so always keep that in mind.