An average smartphone user has installed at least 50 apps on their phone. Especially if you are an android user the number of apps you have installed on your phone could exceed 100. So when you open your home screen or menu, you might think that you see all the apps that are installed on your phone. But no, there are a couple of hidden apps on your phone, and of course, you can hide some apps by yourself if you want to. In this article, we are going to describe to you how to find hidden apps on android and how to hide apps on android.
Difference between hidden apps and disabled apps.
Before we begin you should know the difference between hidden apps and disabled apps. If you go to the apps section in the settings menu you will see a section called disabled apps. Even when you open an app menu you might have seen this option. Disabling an app is not hiding an app. Disabling the app means just stopping it from operating so that the app does not use your system resources. These apps are automatically enabled once you open them. On the other hand hidden apps, function normally like all other apps but they cannot be just found in the apps menu, or they have a different appearance which hides their functionality.
Hide apps option is not available for every android device, since the android UI is modified slightly different from device to device. But if you want to hide apps you can do it by installing a launcher or a third-party app which we intend to discuss later in this article.
Find hidden apps by going to settings
To see the full list of apps that are installed on your device you can always follow the steps below.
- Open settings.
- Go to apps.
- Click on the all icon.
Now you can see all the apps installed on the phone. Now if you see some unfamiliar apps which cannot be seen on the home screen it’s most probably a hidden app. You can open apps from them or uninstall them if you do not want them. You also can see how much storage they take in your device from here.
But remember, in this list, some apps are default system apps that are hidden by default since they are installed by the manufacture to phone to function properly. So if you are making changes to any app, please make sure that you are not uninstalling or clearing storage in the system app.
Find hidden apps from the apps menu
This method only works for some versions of android phones. In some android devices, the option to hide apps is available on the device itself. Open the apps menu by tapping the menu icon on the home screen.
- Tap on the three dots on the top right
- Click on hide apps. (if the option is available)
- If the option is not available go to ‘home settings-> hide apps’
- Now you will be shown a list of hidden apps. If the list is empty all the apps are visible on your apps menu screen.
Other types of hidden apps: Vault apps and other secret apps
There is a number of secret apps which has secret functions but appears to be a different app. These apps act as mostly private vault apps to keep your private data. If you are going through your child’s phone and looking for these secret apps you might want to check for these things if you think that any app is something more than it seems.
- The app is asking for a pin to unlock. the file size used by the app is too large (you can see the file size used by the app from the apps menu in settings)
- After opening the app it doesn’t function properly or just shows a static screen without any functions.
So if you are suspicious about any app like this you can always see the app details. If the app is downloaded from the google play store you can see the app details by following these steps.
- Click and hold on the app icon
- Now you can see a small menu. Click on the ‘about this app’
- This will open the settings for the app, all the permissions used by the app, and the other details.
- Somewhere bottom of this page you will find the google play store link to go to the official app page on the play store
On the official play store page, you can read all the details about the app. You can check if it has hidden functionalities or if it is used as a vault-app to keep private files.
How to hide apps on android
Well now since you know how to find hidden apps on android we also want you to know how to hide apps on android. Hiding apps is a good way to protect your privacy, and if your phone is used by your child it’s a good way to keep the unwanted apps away from them.
Hide apps from the apps menu
As we said before in this article some android phones give you an option to hide apps in the apps menu. you can click on the three dots on the top right corner in the apps menu and see if the option is available on your phone. If it is available you can hide apps easily by adding the apps you want to hide to the list.
Hide apps using a launcher
Launcher app is an app that runs on top of your Android UI app which extends the UI capabilities in the device. You can download a launcher app which gives you the option to hide apps. One of the most used launcher apps in Nova launcher. With these launcher apps, you can customize the theme of the phone the way you want. In the nova launcher, the hide apps option is available and you will be able to access the hide apps option by going to the apps menu in the launcher.
With the extended capabilities of android, there could be a couple more ways to hide apps on android and to discover them. Especially if an android device is rooted, a lot more can be done with that device. But overall you should be able to find hidden apps on android by using the methods we discussed.