Hiding sensitive apps on your Android device is an important step to protect your personal privacy. Maybe, you have friends or family members that don’t believe in privacy. It’s also to ensure that if your phone is lost or stolen, your private information will be safe.
Most of the Android devices come with pre-installed apps that are useless. They clutter your app drawer and interfere with finding the apps you use most often. Hiding these apps cleans up the screen and improve user experience.
This guide shows how to hide apps on your Oppo smartphone with no root required.
1. Launcher to hide apps in Oppo
Apex Launcher is a popular third-party launcher application that can replace your home screen and app drawer. Out of many features that it offers, one is the ability to hide apps. It has a dedicated ‘Hidden Apps’ option that will help you easily achieve the task.
Download Apex Launcher from Google Play Store. After installing, open it and set as your default launcher. Now, open ‘Apex Settings’ from the home screen, then tap ‘Hidden Apps’. From the following screen, tap ‘Add Hidden Apps’ button and select the apps that you want to hide. Finally, tap the ‘Hide Apps’ button.
The selected apps are now invisible, but you can still find it in the search results. To prevent the apps from appearing in the search results, tap on the gear icon at the top-right corner. In the following page, turn off the toggle beside the text “Show in search results”. You can also password protect the Hidden Apps page so that no one can access it and unhide the hidden apps.
While the apps are hidden, you can still use them. To open an app, you have to go to ‘Apex Settings’ > ‘Hidden Apps’, and tap on the app. But remember, you’ll not receive any notifications or update for the hidden apps.
To unhide an app, you just need to open ‘Apex Settings’ > ‘Hidden Apps’, choose the app you want to unhide and tap ‘Unhide’ button.
2. App Hider for Oppo
App Hider apps, like Calculator Vault, offer the easiest way to hide apps on Oppo or any other Android phone. Calculator Vault creates a virtual space where you can hide your apps. The idea is, you create a clone of any app, and then, delete the original app from your app drawer. And, Calculator Vault hides itself in the form of a functional calculator that anyone can use. But if you enter your secret key, you will instantly get access to your hidden apps.
To get started, download and install Calculator Vault from Play Store. After installation, open the app. It will ask to enter a passcode. You must set it up to access your hidden apps later. Once set, the calculator mask will come alive.
In the next screen, tap the plus (+) icon and select the apps you want to hide. When you are finished adding apps, open your app drawer and uninstall those apps from your device. Don’t worry, the apps are safe inside Calculator Vault, and you can use them from there.
Also read: How to hide apps on Android without Root
3. Hide apps in Oppo phones
Some smartphone manufacturers, like Oppo phones, included a feature called ‘App Lock’ which helps you to hide your apps without any hassle. You can quickly hide app icons and secure with a password if you need to hand in your phone to someone else. And you don’t require any third-party app-hiding apps for that. Here’s how,
Step 1: Go to phone ‘Settings’ > ‘Security’ > ‘App Lock’.
Step 2: Click an app you wish to hide. Then turn on ‘Enable Passcode Verification’, and then ‘Hide Homescreen Icon’. You can also hide it from recent tasks and disable its notifications.
Step 3: A pop-up message will ask you to set an access number. You can open the hidden apps by dialing this code: #Access Number#
So, that’s it. Enjoy hiding applications ?
