Phones have become our private trunk where we keep all kinds of personal content. The photos of the bride, the video of the birth of our little niece, bank bills and many other files of our very interesting private life. Do youIs there any way to hide this kind of files so personal on Android?
To hide photos, videos, documents or even the existence of certain apps, we have 2 methods at our disposal:
- We can use a dedicated application to hide private files.
- We can also hide files without the need for applications, by hand. This method will only work for us with photos and videos.
How to hide your photos and personal files from your mobile so that nobody can see them
The easiest and fastest way to apply a filter to what can and cannot be seen in our image gallery is the following:
- We open the "Gallery" application.
- We click on the image or video that we want to hide.
- We click on the options button (3 points vertically) and select "Hide".
Many current Android phones include a media hide feature in their Gallery application. If our app to view photos and videos does not bring this function, we can install Simple Gallery. This is one of the apps to view the best rated images in the Play Store, it is free and it also allows you to hide files in the way we have just discussed.
Download QR-Code Simple Gallery - Admin-editor of photos, videos Developer: Simple Mobile Tools Price: Free Samsung mobiles also have a function called "Private Mode" that allows us to store photos and videos in a secure area. We can activate it from "Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Private Mode”. Thus, when we open a photo in the gallery, among its adjustment options there will be a new option called "Send to private" that will allow us hide any image or recording from the "Gallery", "Voice recorder" or "My files" apps.
Protecting images, videos, documents and applications with password
For some users this may be fine, but for others it may not be enough. If we want a security plus we always have the option of installing a tool like AppLock.
Download QR-Code Lock (AppLock) Developer: DoMobile Lab Price: Free Thanks to this application we can do 3 really practical things:
- Password protect photos and videos. It works with all types of files (DOC, PDF, Excel etc.).
- Protect access to applications using password.
- Hide pictures and videos individually.
A really complete application that accepts both numeric passwords, patterns or fingerprints as access control methods. If you are interested in knowing more about how AppLock works, do not hesitate to take a look at THIS POST where we talk in detail about it.
How to hide photos and videos on Android without apps
So far we have talked about using the Gallery app and AppLock to hide our private files. However, if we want to go one step further, we can also do this whole process by hand.
The trick is to use a file explorer and group all the photos and videos that we want to hide in a single folder. Next, we will create a special file that will tell Android to "forget" all the multimedia files that folder contains.
- We open a file explorer and create a new folder with whatever name we want. We move all the documents that we want to hide to that folder.
- we create a new file named ".nomedia".
In this way, when the system encounters the .nomedia file, it will understand that it is a folder in which there are no multimedia files to display. Any photo or video that we save here simply will not appear in any Image Gallery.
We can also hide images and videos individually. We just have to use any file explorer, locate the file and rename it, adding a "." (period) at the beginning. In this way, Android will bypass the file and stop displaying it.
How to hide apps on an Android phone
AppLock is fine so that no one can enter an application without our permission. But what if what we want is that they don't even know that we have a certain app installed on the mobile?
It is useless to have a “delicate” app protected by a password, if we have its icon clearly visible in the application drawer or on the desktop itself.
For these situations we need a tool like AppHider. An application that does not require root and that allows us to do all this:
- Hide apps so they don't appear anywhere.
- Hide the AppHider itself to make it look like a simple calculator app.
Its mechanics are quite simple. In essence, it works as a multi-account application cloner. If we want to hide an app, we just have to clone it within AppHider and then uninstall the original application that is visible to everyone.
Download QR-Code App Hider- Hide Apps Hide Photos Multiple Accounts Developer: Hide Apps (NO ROOT) Price: Free 
Do you have a launcher? So you don't even need to install a tool to hide your most delicate apps
If we are fond of installing customizable launchers on our mobile, we don't even need an app to hide all those high-voltage applications that we have installed.
The premium version of Nova Launcher, for example, allows you to hide applications in just over 3 steps:
- We are going to "Nova Settings”.
- Click on "Applications”.
- We go down to "Hide apps”And we select the apps that we want not to be displayed on the screen.
As we say, it is a great utility, but it requires us to go through the box to get the paid version of Nova. Something that can be very relevant considering the amount of customization possibilities offered by a launcher as complete as this one.
Download QR-Code Nova Launcher Developer: TeslaCoil Software Price: Free Other applications to hide private photos and documents
In addition to those mentioned above, there are other similar applications to hide images, apps and all kinds of sensitive documents from the phone.
LOCKit
An app very much like AppLock. It allows you to protect applications with a password and it has a "safe" where we can hide personal photos and videos. It also allows you to block notifications and it has some other curious and interesting function.
Download QR-Code LOCKit-Lock App Developer: SuperTools Corporation Price: Free Calculator - Photo Vault
The name says it all. A safe camouflaged as a calculator to use, where we can hide all those images that we do not want anyone to see. Discreet and easy to use.
Download QR-Code Calculator - Photo Vault (hide your photos) Developer: Green world inc Price: Free Photo-Video Locker
Another similar application, with the appearance of a calculator to mislead. In this case we can hide both photos and videos, and block apps. Among its functions is the possibility of take a photo if someone takes our mobile or create a fake error message when someone tries to open a certain app.
Download QR-Code Photo, Video Locker-Calculator Developer: Photo and video applications Price: Free And that's all for today. As always, for any questions or queries, see you in the comments area. Until tomorrow!
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