How to camouflage your embarrassing iPhone apps — hide them in plain sight

 iPhone
iPhone

Some of us have apps on our iPhone that we don't want others knowing about. If the thought of someone snatching your phone and scrolling through your apps makes you cringe, I've got the perfect iPhone trick for you.

Apple hasn't created an easy pipeline for users to make apps invisible, but there is still a way to camouflage them if you're willing to take the time to follow a few easy steps. The trick involves changing your iPhone background to a color that matches your folders, allowing you to hide your apps in said folders (in plain sight).

iPhone 12 mini
iPhone 12 mini

Follow the instructions below to figure out how you can hide your iPhone apps from prying nosybodies.

How to hide iPhone apps by making invisible folders

In order for this trick to work, you must to have two offending apps that you'd like to hide. Without further ado, here's how you hide apps in plain sight your iPhone.

Hidden folder in iOS
Hidden folder in iOS

1. Searching for a solid wallpaper with hex color 1F1F1F on Google. This is the same hue as an iPhone folder.

hex color 1f1f1f
hex color 1f1f1f

2. Download this solid wallpaper.

3. Next, set it as your wallpaper by navigating to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper > All Photos and selecting the 1F1F1F wallpaper.

4. Now, for the fun part! It’s time to camouflage the apps. Open Shortcuts and tap on the plus button (+).

Shortcuts on iOS
Shortcuts on iOS

5.Tap “Add action” 

Add Action in iOS
Add Action in iOS

6. Search for “Open app.”

Open App option in iOS
Open App option in iOS

7. In the Open App page, tap “App."

Open app in iOS
Open app in iOS

8. Scroll for one of the two apps you want to hide. In this case, we're hiding the Hinge app first.

Hinge app on iOS
Hinge app on iOS

6. Next, tap on Open App and tap on “Add to Home Screen,”

Add to Home Screen in iOS
Add to Home Screen in iOS

7. Press and hold the icon next to “New Shortcut,” and tap “Choose Photo.” 

Choose a Photo on iOS
Choose a Photo on iOS

8. Select the 1F1F1F photo (the same one that’s currently your wallpaper). Now, the offending app is the same color as the wallpaper and iPhone folder.

1F1F1F wallpaper in iOS
1F1F1F wallpaper in iOS

7. Repeat steps 4 to 8 for a second app (there must be more than one app for this to work).

8. The newly tweaked apps can be found on your home screen with the names “New Shortcut.” Now, drag one app into the other to create a new folder named "Bookmarks."

9. The next thing you need to do is to remove the "Bookmarks" name. If you try to simply erase it, it will not work. What you need to do is copy a blank space like this one (do not copy the brackets):  [⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]

Erasing folder name in iOS
Erasing folder name in iOS

9. Next, tap Rename, erase "Bookmark," and paste the blank space you copied.

iPhone invisible app
iPhone invisible app

10. Now, you'll have an empty, invisible folder hiding at least two apps. Win!