How to lock, hide, and unhide an app on iPhone in iOS 18

Starting in iOS 18 and iPad OS 18, you have even more control over who can view your information stored in an app by locking it to require Face ID, Touch ID, or your Passcode for access. And you can hide supported apps for even more control. We’ll show you how to lock an app and unlock it to no longer require authentication when it’s opened, and how to hide an app on your home screen and unhide it again when you’re ready.

Let’s get started.

How to lock and unlock an app on your home screen on iOS 18

1. Touch and hold the app you’d like to lock.
2. Tap Require Face ID.
   • If you lock an app, it will require Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to open or show its content in another app, and the app content will not appear in other places including notification previews and spotlight.
3. When you’re ready, tap Require Face ID to lock the app.
4. When you’re ready to unlock the app and no longer require authentication to open it, touch and hold it, then tap Don’t Require Face ID.

Now your app no longer requires authentication to open and its content is added back to spotlight. In the next section, we’ll walk you through how to hide an app and unhide it again at any time.

how to hide an app and unhide it on iOS 18

1. Touch and hold the app you’d like to hide.
   • You can hide third-party apps or Apple apps that were downloaded from the App Store.
2. Tap Require Face ID and tap Hide and Require Face ID.
   • A screen will appear explaining that your app will require face ID, touch ID, or your passcode to reveal, open, or use Siri with the app. The app will also be moved to a folder for Hidden Apps in App Library and you will not receive notifications, calls, or critical alerts from this app.
3. When you’re ready, tap Hide App to continue.
4. To access your app after you’ve hidden it, swipe left on your home screen until you get to App Library.
5. Scroll down to the Hidden folder.
   • All devices with iOS 18 or later will have this same Hidden app folder whether you’ve hidden apps on your device or not.
6. Now tap Hidden and authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
7. If you’d like to unlock and unhide the app, touch and hold the app in the Hidden folder, tap Add to Home Screen, and tap Unhide App.
8. Now your app will be unlocked and returned to your home screen.

More privacy, more peace of mind.