Most smartphone manufacturers, including Vivo, offer a built-in feature to hide apps to prevent unauthorized access. You can easily hide apps on your Vivo phone in a few clicks, which I’ll show you in this guide.
Whether it’s a finance app, a game, or a dating app, you must protect them behind a solid door to stay worry-free when someone scrolls through your app list. In this step-by-step guide, I’ll tell you how to hide apps in any Vivo phone. I’ll also tell you how to unhide and access hidden apps on your phone.
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Most people know about the default app hiding feature in Vivo, but there are some secret ways to hide apps that are lesser known to people. I’ll also reveal them in this guide.
How to Hide Apps in Vivo Phones
Table of Contents
Step 1: Open the Settings app and select Security.
Step 2: Tap on Privacy & app encryption.
Step 3: Enter the password, pin, or pattern. Create one if you haven’t already.
Step 4: Select the App hiding option.
Step 5: Select the apps you want to hide.
That’s how you can easily hide apps from the home screen on your Vivo phone.
The steps to hide apps differ if you have an older Vivo phone. In that case, you need to follow these steps:
Step 1: Go to the Settings app and choose Security & Privacy.
Step 2: Select Privacy and app encryption.
Step 3: Create a pattern or password. You’ll need it whenever you want to access hidden apps.
Step 4: Set security questions. You’ll need them to recover your privacy password.
Step 5: Choose the Hide App option and select the apps you want to hide.
Secretly Hide Apps in Vivo Phones
If you don’t want others to know that you’ve hidden apps on your smartphone, you must know about these secret app hiding tools.
Method 1: Hide Apps Behind a Phone Dialer
Yes, you read that right. You can hide your secret apps behind a phone dialer. You can access your hidden apps by dialing your secret code.
Sounds exciting enough? Well, then, let’s jump right into the steps.
Step 1: Download the Dialer Lock – AppHider app from the Google Play Store.
Step 2: Open the app and create a six-digit password.
Step 3: Click Confirm.
Step 4: Type your password to open app options.
Step 5: Click the + icon at the bottom, select the apps to hide, and click Import (Hide / Dual).
Step 6: Tap on the app you just added to see if it works fine. If the app works without any issues, go to the home screen.
Step 7: Delete the app you imported to the Dialer Lock app in the previous step.
Step 8: Open the Dialer Lock app and enter your secret password to access hidden apps.
[Disclaimer: I don’t recommend using this app or any other third-party app to hide critical apps, such as your finance apps.]Basically, the Dialer Lock app clones the selected app and recommends that you delete the original installation. Please keep in mind that the app data isn’t copied to the cloned app.
Method 2: Hide Apps Behind a Calculator
Another lesser-known way of hiding apps on Android smartphones is by using a calculator app. The app works exactly like a standard calculator until you enter the secret code to uncover the magic.
Step 1: Download the HideU: Calculator Lock app from the Google Play Store.
Step 2: Launch the app and tap on Agree & Continue.
Step 3: Grant required permission(s).
Step 4: Type a 4-digit secret code and click “=” symbol.
Step 5: Enter the code again and click “=” symbol.
Step 6: Create a backup gesture or enable the fingerprint option to access hidden apps when you forget the password. Or, click skip at the upper-right corner.
Step 7: Click Hide Apps and select the apps you want to hide.
Step 8: Click Next and tap on Enter.
Step 9: Select Calculator. Doing this will change your current launcher.
Step 10: Click the Calculator app and enter your secret code to access your hidden apps.
Method 3: Hide Apps by Changing the Launcher
There are some third-party launchers with a built-in app hide option. You can use them to hide your secret apps.
Step 1: Download the Lawnchair 2 app from the Google Play Store.
Step 2: Open the app and give the required permissions.
Step 3: Tap and hold on to a black area, and select Home settings.
Step 4: Tap three vertical dots in the upper-right corner and select Set as Home App.
Step 5: Set Lawnchair as your default launcher.
Step 6: Select Drawer from Lawnchair options and tap on Hidden App Shortcuts.
Step 7: Select the apps you want to hide.
While Lawnchair is a great launcher, it doesn’t offer password protection for hidden apps. Nova Launcher and Hyperion Launcher also provide an app hiding feature, but you’ll need to pay for it.
How to Access Hidden Apps in Vivo Phones
Hiding apps is one part of the equation. You’d also want to know how to access them (in the easiest way).
Method 1: The Regular Approach
Step 1: Launch the Settings app on your Vivo phone.
Step 2: Scroll down to Security and tap on it.
Step 3: Tap on Privacy & app encryption.
Step 4: Enter the privacy pin, password, or pattern you have set before.
Step 5: Click on View Hidden Apps. You’ll see all the hidden apps.
Step 6: Tap on the app you want to access.
These steps may not work on older Vivo phones. In that case, use the following steps:
Step 1: Go to the Settings app and choose Security & Privacy.
Step 2: Select Privacy and app encryption.
Step 3: Enter your privacy pin, password, or pattern.
Step 4: Tap on View Hidden Apps. You’ll see all the hidden apps.
Step 5: Select an app you want to access to launch it.
Method 2: Using a Gesture
You can simply avoid the above steps and use a gesture to easily and quickly access your hidden apps.
Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Open the Settings app and select Security.
Step 2: Tap on Privacy & app encryption.
Step 3: Enter your privacy pin, password, or pattern.
Step 4: Tap on App hiding and toggle on View hidden apps.
Step 5: From the home screen, swipe up with two fingers from the bottom, enter your privacy password, and choose the hidden app you want to access.
How to Unhide Apps in Vivo Phones
Here’s how you can unhide hidden apps on a Vivo smartphone:
Step 1: Launch the Settings app on your Vivo phone.
Step 2: Scroll down to Security and tap on it.
Step 3: Tap on Privacy & app encryption and enter your privacy pin or pattern.
Step 4: Select the App hiding option.
Step 5: Deselect the apps you want to unhide.
These steps may not apply to Vivo phones running older versions of FuntouchOS. In that case, follow these steps:
Step 1: Go to the Settings app and choose Security & Privacy.
Step 2: Select Privacy and app encryption.
Step 3: Enter your privacy pin, password, or pattern.
Step 4: Tap on Hide App and deselect the apps you want to unhide.
Conclusion
While it’s easy to hide and unhide apps on Vivo smartphones, there are some lesser-known ways that even make it difficult for others to guess if you’re hiding apps.
I hope this guide has been helpful. If you are stuck somewhere or facing any issues, write in the comments below. I’ll try to respond at the earliest.
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