Apps provide a lot of features and help us to use our phones efficiently. But sometimes, we download an app from Google Play Store or Galaxy App store which we think is not necessary for us. In that case, it requires hiding those apps on your Samsung Galaxy S5. Here are the top 5 ways to hide apps on your S5:
1) Hide Apps via Locking Screen
This method can be used to hide individual apps on your device. Follow these steps:
Go to Home screen and tap Menu key > My Files. Tap Settings > Applications > Manage application. Choose an app you want to hide and tap Uninstall Updates. Finally, go back one step by tapping the Back key several times until you return to the Lock screen view.
Now you will see the app icon is moved to Lock screen shortcuts under Hidden apps. You can now freely use that app from your lock screen without others seeing the icon. If the icon still shows up, delete the cache and data of this app, reboot your device and try again. You can read more on how to do it here: Delete Cache and Data of an Android App.
2) Hide Apps via Application Manager
If you want to hide any or all apps at once on your phone, you should go with the second method which uses Application Manager. This way is useful especially when you need to hide a bunch of system apps that cannot be uninstalled by conventional means. To start hiding apps on your S5:
Go to Settings and tap Application Manager. On the All tab, choose an app you want to hide and tap More > Move to Private. Now return to the Application Manager screen and you will see the app is moved under the Private apps section. Repeat step 2 until all apps that you want to keep hidden are moved there. After finishing moving those apps, turn off your device then back on again. From now on, those apps will be kept hidden from prying eyes inside the Private folder.
3) Hide Apps via Folder
Since Android 4.4 KitKat, users can place any individual app icon onto a new home screen folder (normal folders contain shortcuts for multiple applications). Follow these steps:
Create a new folder in Home Screen or anywhere you prefer. Drag an icon of the app you want to hide into that folder. Then open the newly created folder. You will see there is only one icon on it and no way to add more apps. That must be because this particular folder is a private one, meaning its content cannot be seen by others unless they know the name of the folder (or use some third-party home screen apps).
You can create several such folders and hide different apps in them respectively. But please remember: The main rule here is not to rename any existing folders (for example, “Games”) or make new folders with names like “(Spy Camera)”. If you do so, your hidden apps will become visible again since their folder names are known to other people.
4) Hide Apps via Icon Changer
There is another way to hide apps on Galaxy S5 by changing the icon of that app and then placing it into a new folder like above (moreover, you can also change their names to anything you like). However, this method is quite complicated and time-consuming. Here are the steps:
Install an icon changer such as AndroZip File Manager. Then rename your chosen hidden app’s icon with a zip file manager. The only condition here is not using stock Android icons under the Drawable folder. For example, you can use the MaskMe icon for this purpose but NOT Google Calendar icon or Gmail icon. After renaming, create a ZIP file out of all these files in step 1 above. Now you have turned a private app into a publicly viewable one so the next step is creating a new folder for it under the Home screen. Use your preferred method like in step 1 and place this newly created ZIP file inside that folder, instead of individual files (which will be seen by others).
Finish the first three steps and now you can see this app has an icon that looks different from its original one. You then need to move that renamed/re-themed app to another directory like Games or Tools which is already occupied by other apps (but do not forget to rename those existing icons as well). Because once those hidden apps are moved to any such folders, they become invisible due to the same names! Since what makes them visible is their folder name, changing the latter will hide them again.
5) Hide Apps by Creating New Folder
The other way is to create a new folder and place all hidden apps into this one. After that switch back to the original drawer where you should see your newly created folder with no sign of those hidden apps! Finally, remember that once you have changed the icon and/or name of an app via AndroZip File Manager, it becomes publicly viewable so others can download and use it. So be careful not to rename any stock Android apps or system tools like Google Calendar or Messaging. Otherwise, everything will become messed up.
Conclusion:
While Samsung Galaxy S5 has been out for a while now, people are still finding new tricks every day for making the most out of their devices. Soon after its release, we shared with you how to make Galaxy S5 faster and increase battery life. However since this is a brand new phone, many users are still finding ways to make it work for them. Today, in this tutorial we will show you how to hide any app on Galaxy S5 via simple methods which can exclude stock Android apps or special system tools like Messaging, Google Calendar etc. Here are two working options:
