There are things on our phones that we’d prefer to keep private, which could be apps, photos, videos, or other sorts of files.
This is why it’s important to hide them so that no one else can access them except you.
Although you can add some sort of biometric authentication to make sure nobody else can access your device. However, there are certain apps that we wish to bury deep down.
This may include financial apps containing sensitive credentials or regular social media apps that you don’t want to keep checking every few minutes.
When it comes to hiding apps deep down with a passcode, OxygenOS has one of the best implementations of any Android skin.
Unfortunately, OxygenOS 12 has now changed how it handles privacy features when it comes to interacting and accessing the hidden space on your OnePlus phone.
In this guide, we will show you how to hide apps on OxygenOS 12 and access them later when the need comes.
In This Article
What Happened to the Hidden Apps?
In previous versions of OxygenOS, you could hide your apps and access them by simply swiping right in the app drawer. This would bring up a hidden space that you could protect using a passcode or a pin.
This way, accessing your hidden apps took almost no effort since they were tucked only a swipe away. For better or for worse (mostly for the worse), OxygenOS 12 uses a completely different system launcher that doesn’t have the hidden space to the left of your app drawer anymore.
If you have recently updated your OnePlus phone and haven’t been able to find your hidden apps in the usual spot, you have nothing to worry about.
The feature hasn’t been removed and any of your apps haven’t been deleted. The only thing that has changed is how you can access them.
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How To Hide And Access Hidden Apps In OxygenOS 12
Aside from the slew of new features in OxygenOS 12, OnePlus has taken a more streamlined approach to privacy, nesting most of the major privacy-oriented features such as hidden apps, Private Safe, and App Locker all into one section.
To access and use the hidden apps space in OxygenOS 12, you will first need to create a privacy passcode.
Step 1: Navigate to Settings > Privacy and tap on Hide apps under the Privacy Protection section.
Step 2: Here, you will be prompted to add a six-digit pin for accessing the privacy features along with an access code that you will have to enter every time you wish to access your hidden apps.
The access code must start and end with a # and can be up to 16 digits long.
Step 3: Once you have both your privacy and access codes set up, you can start selecting apps you wish to hide.
Your hidden apps will no longer show up in your app drawer or even come up when you try to search.
To access the hidden apps again, you have to enter the access code with the Phone app. This will bring up a folder that has all the apps that you have hidden.
At first glance, this seems like a safer method to protect your sensitive data. However, most users haven’t been happy with the added friction that OnePlus has added in the ColorOS-inspired update.
To make things worse (or better), you won’t be able to access your hidden space with any third-party dialer apps, so you might have to find other ways to hide apps on your Android device.
The hidden apps also function a bit differently in OxygenOS 12. For starters, they will vanish and leave no trace in the recent app switcher when you close the app or switch to another one.
Also, there’s an added option under the privacy options to disable notifications from your hidden apps.
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Increasing Your Privacy
Many Android manufacturers have stellar privacy options that you can use to keep your sensitive data private.
While some people might consider it slow, Android has been consistently putting its emphasis on privacy, and when OEMs like OnePlus implement these features into their devices, you should try them out.
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