Since your iPhone is already protected by Face ID, it might seem like a case of belt and braces to then hide individual apps under the same biometric system, but it’s a feature you’ll use. It means you can unlock your iPhone to hand over to someone, but know, for instance, that they can’t accidentally open your banking apps.
If someone is using your phone and you’ve locked an app, when they try to open that app, they’ll see a popup that says it can’t be accessed without secondary authentication.
Not all apps can be locked, with Apple not providing an option for innocuous apps like Maps, Clock, Calculator, and Stocks, but almost every other app can be locked, including third-party apps. When you lock an app, you have the option to hide it as well, which moves it into a locked, hidden apps folder that requires authentication to open.
Locked or hidden apps are not only unable to be opened, but also hidden from search, notifications, and other places across the operating system. Enabling a lock on an app also shows the apps that have access to it, such as apps that are able to write images to the Photos app. Hiding an app means that you will not receive incoming notifications or calls from it, and it will only be available from a "Hidden" folder in the App Library.
Whereas the ability to hide an app away is so good that you could find yourself wondering how in the world to get them back.
Locked and hidden are related
Apple described locking apps and hiding them as two separate things, but actually one is an extension of the other. You can’t hide an app without locking it.
Which means that, potentially confusingly and possibly ironically, the option to hide an app is hidden. Also, nowhere in iOS 18 is the locking option actually called lock.
Instead, to lock or hide an app, you first press and hold on it. This is the same action as to make all apps wiggle ahead of moving them around, but this time you only wait for the pop-up menu to appear.
When it does, there’s usually an option called Require Face ID. But there isn’t always — you can’t Require Face ID to lock the Shortcuts app, for instance.
You can Require Face ID to lock the new Passwords app, but you can’t also hide it.
So you may not always get the option, but when offered the ability to require Face ID, tap to select it.
Once you do, then you get an alert explaining that, should you go ahead, "Face ID will be required to open the app or use Siri with it." The alert further explains that "Notification previews and Spotlight will not show app content."
[![Options to require Face ID for an app called Robinhood on an iPhone, including hiding the app from the home screen are displayed on screen.][Options to require Face ID for an app called Robinhood on an iPhone, including hiding the app from the home screen are displayed on screen.]
Your three options here are usually:
- Require Face ID
- Hide and Require Face ID
- Cancel
If you go ahead with just Require Face ID, you will see the Dynamic Island show your face being scanned. Assuming that it is your face and this isn’t someone else trying to do it, the app is now locked.
You see no difference in the app externally, the icon remains on your screen. And again, if you are the user, then you will barely notice a difference when you want to open it.
How to hide an app
Go through the same process but, if it is available, this time select Hide and Require Face ID. Again, not all apps will have this option, but now you’ll also find that any apps you’ve previously locked won’t display this option either.
Instead, locked apps show a pop-up menu with Don’t Require Face ID. You have to choose that and then, assuming you pass the Face ID scan, the app is unlocked.
Then you can go through the process and choose Hide and Require Face ID. You’ll be prompted to confirm that you are sure you want to hide the app — and also warned of when hidden apps may yet be seen.
Specifically, you’re warned that the app will not be visible "except in a few places such as Settings."
If you want to continue, tap Hide App, and it is gone from your iPhone faster than you can even notice having your face scanned.
How to get back a hidden app
There could be a hole in your iPhone screen, like a toothless gap, but otherwise there won’t even be a sign that the app ever existed.
But what there will be — will always be — is a Hidden folder in the App Library. Swipe from the right on your iPhone home screen and keep swiping until you get the App Library at the end.
Scroll to the very bottom of that and, whether you’ve hidden any apps or not, there will be this folder called Hidden. Unsurprisingly, Hidden is locked with Face ID.
But tap to open it, get your face scanned, and there’s the open folder with your hidden app in it. You can tap to open and run the app as normal.
When you’re done and you come out of the app, it remains in the Hidden folder and again cannot be seen.
What’s particularly good about this is that Apple has given a Hidden folder to every iOS 18 user. So no one can see you’ve got a Hidden folder and conclude that you actually are hiding something.
Just act innocent when they ask you what this "Hidden" folder is. And make sure you aren’t looking at the screen when they try to show you.
More on iOS 18:
- How to schedule messages to Send Later in iOS 18
- 10 Best iOS 18 Hidden Features You Should Try Right Now
- iOS 18 eye tracking: How to navigate iPhone with just your eyes
- 10 Cool iOS 18 features to check out and customize
- iOS 18 – How To CUSTOMIZE The New Home Screen
- iOS 18: How to Swap Out Lock Screen Camera and Flashlight Buttons