Most of the phones coming out of China come without application drawer. Similar to iOS, all the applications are stored on home screens. This creates lot of clutter as you do not want apps like ‘SwiftKey’ ‘truecaller’ visible all the type as these apps are like ‘setup and forget’. This will also help if you do not want others to know specific apps that you have on your phone (when someone like Anu aunty tries to spy on your phone). In this guide, we will show you how you can hide application icons.
If you are using newer Oppo or Realme phone running ColorOS 6.x, head to this guide instead.
You can access our full list of guides for Oppo Color OS 5.2 in this page. You can also access our recommended smartphone list to get list of best smartphones that you can buy.
How do you open an application that is hidden? That is done by entering access number that you have set for the app, on your dialer. So, lets set the access number for the application first and also encrypt the application. You can get encryption process from this guide.
After encrypting the apps, go to settings application:
Go to [Security] > [App Lock], enter the verification passcode to enter the App Encryption screen. Click on one application.
Turn on [Start Passcode Verification], then turn on [Hide Home screen icon].
If this is the first time, you will now see a pop up windows asking you to set new access number for opening hidden applications. Do note that you have one access code for all apps and that you do not have one access code per application. Set a number that starts and ends with “#” and contains one to sixteen characters, then click Done.
You can disable app from showing in recent apps list, app switcher and disable app to show any kind of notifications.
Open hidden apps.
Open Phone call application, open keypad and enter access number that you had set.
You will see the list of hidden applications once the number is verified.
Note:
- Apps that aren’t displayed in Recent Tasks can be closed using the one-tap cleanup function.
- Access number can be set only once when you use the hidden feature for the first time. If you forgot the number, reset the phone to its factory settings to reset the number.
