Apps can be hidden on an iPhone.
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Whether deliberately or not, it is possible to hide apps on an iPhone. If it’s been a while since you hid an app or you didn’t intend to hide it in the first place, it’s not always easy to find it. And it’s getting harder all the time!
I’m going to show you how to find hidden apps on your iPhone, so you don’t have to search through the clutter of a critical app or worry that someone has sneakily installed an app on your device to, say, track your location.
Apple is making it even easier to hide apps with the release of iOS 18 this fall, so we’ll show you how to find hidden apps on current and future operating systems.
Are there secret apps on your iPhone?
There are two main reasons why you might have a hidden app on your iPhone:
The second of these scenarios is pretty hard to pull off, because Apple has a number of security and privacy protection methods that don’t make it easy to hide an app on someone else’s phone. But if, for example, your partner knows your App Store password (perhaps because they set up your iPhone for you in the first place), they may have installed an app and hidden it.
There are a few ways to hide apps on a current iPhone. However, Apple is making it even easier to hide apps on your smartphone with the release of iOS 18. This allows you to long-press an app icon on your home screen and select the “Hide and require Face ID” option.
Once an app has been hidden in this way, it can only be accessed by navigating to the Hidden Apps folder in the App Library (found by continuously swiping left from the Home screen) and using Face ID to unlock the folder’s contents. People trying to access the folder won’t even be able to see what apps are in the Hidden folder without a Face ID swipe, let alone access them.
This is a huge improvement over the current system, where even hidden apps can still be found in the App Library.
How to find hidden apps on your iPhone
Not all apps have to appear on home screens
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There are several ways to hide an app on an iPhone, as explained in the article linked above, but they all leave the app lurking in the phone’s App Library.
You may find apps in the App Store that promise to hide other apps, but these are often misleading. There is no app that can completely hide the presence of other apps or create a password-protected folder of hidden apps.
How to find hidden apps through Home
If you can’t find an app icon on your Home screens, but you know you have it installed, it will appear in the App Library.
Keep swiping from right to left on the home screen, and eventually you’ll find the App Library. The App Library automatically sorts all of the apps on your phone into a folder, which can make it difficult to find apps. However, if you swipe down on the App Library screen, you’ll see an alphabetically sorted list of all of the apps you have installed on your iPhone.
How to Find Hidden Apps via Home in iOS 18 and Later
As discussed above, when iOS 18 is released, the process for finding hidden apps will change.
Once again, you’ll need to swipe down to the App Library, but this time you’ll be looking for the folder marked Hidden Apps. When you click on it, you’ll be asked to authenticate with Face ID to ensure that only the phone’s owner can access hidden apps.
How to find hidden apps in the App Store
You’re sure you’ve installed an app, but it’s not on your Home screens, or in your App Library, or even in the Hidden Apps folder (if you’re using iOS 18). Where the heck is it?
In this situation, you may have uninstalled the app entirely by accident (after all, the options to delete and hide apps are in the same menu). You can find apps you’ve previously installed by opening the App Store, clicking your account icon in the top right corner, and selecting Apps. You can scroll through the list or search for the app and then click the download icon next to the app name to put it back on your device.
By the way, if you find an app in this list of previously installed apps that you can no longer install, it means that the app has been removed from the App Store. This could be because the developer has removed it, Apple has banned it, or it no longer meets the requirements for the version of iOS you have installed on your phone.
How to show hidden apps on your iPhone
If you’ve found an app hidden in the App Library and want to put it back on one of your Home screens, it’s a simple process.
Simply long-press the app icon in the App Library and then select Add to Home Screen. It’s a similar process if you’re using the Hidden Apps folder in iOS 18.
If you want to remove an app completely, long press its icon and select Remove from device.
Bottom line
Hiding apps is a good way to prevent snoopers and iPhone sharers from instantly seeing what you have installed, but it’s not foolproof and it’s easy to forget where you’ve hidden those apps in the first place. It’s also great to see that hiding apps will be much more secure in iOS 18.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How to find hidden photos on iPhone
The Photos app on an iPhone offers a folder where you can hide images that you don’t want to be displayed in the main app. It works very similarly to how app hiding will work in iOS 18.
To find hidden photos, open the Photos app and click the Albums icon at the bottom of the screen. The Hidden album is located in Utilities. You’ll need to enter your PIN or authenticate with Face ID to access hidden photos. This is one of the many reasons you might not want to share your phone’s PIN with your partner, kids, or friends.
How to Find Hidden Messages on iPhone
Unlike Photos, there is no official way to hide messages on an iPhone. It is possible to prevent messages from appearing in notifications, but all messages from each contact will be visible in the Messages app.
However, many people no longer trust traditional SMS/MMS messages and instead use apps like WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram to communicate. Those apps can be hidden (and, of course, discovered) as detailed above. However, some of these apps also include the option to make messages automatically disappear, and unless you’re a military-grade hacker, there’s no way to get them back.
How to find hidden spy apps on iPhone
If you’ve shared your password and PIN with someone else, it’s possible that someone has installed an app on your iPhone without your permission.
Some apps allow you to track a person’s location, though iOS often displays permission requests to check whether you want an app to continue tracking your location. If you see such a request for an app you don’t recognize, you should definitely check it out.
As detailed above, the App Library is the first place to check for any secret apps installed on your phone. When iOS 18 is released and installed, it’s also worth checking the Hidden Apps folder, although no one else should be able to use it unless they’ve registered their face for Face ID. If that’s the case, you may not even be able to access the Hidden Apps folder, but it’s a telltale sign that something’s amiss.
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