How to Hide Messages on iPhone

While the use of smartphones in our day to day life has increased considerably, the threat of getting our personal information leaked via our smartphone has increased to much extent too.

Today in this article, we show how to hide messages on iPhone apart from other tips and tricks to safeguard the information we exchange via text messages.

Thanks to Apple for taking this matter on a serious note and incorporated some really good security features in iPhone to keep sensitive information secured.

However, although Apple takes good care of user’s private information on an iPhone yet there is some loopholes (message preview) that could reveal information that the users share via text messages with their iPhone.

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While the iPhone has made our super easy, for example, message preview without actually unlocking iPhone & quick reply, it could result in leakage of sensitive information sent through message. If you know the tips and tricks that we’ve shared below, you can handle this matter easily. Keep reading.

Why Hide Messages on iPhone?

There could be any reason as to why do you want to hide messages on iPhone. For example, you simply don’t like anyone to read your messages that you are exchanging with your friend Or you exchange a lot of sensitive information related to your business via messages and don’t want others to see (even accidentally).

In that case, if someone gets hold of your iPhone and if the preview message feature isn’t disabled (we will discuss how to disable), the person can see message snippet without the iPhone is actually unlocked and even quick reply to the message!

Again, the reason for hiding messages on the iPhone can not just be related to business only, there could be several other reasons.

For example, imagine your marriage anniversary is approaching and you are planning to throw a party as a surprise to your wife. Your wife knows about marriage anniversary but she can’t imagine you could plan a party.

If your wife gets to know about this surprise party from the messages that you have exchanged with people helping you organize a party, it could spoil your mood and ruin the surprise. The same thing can happen when you are arranging a party for your friend’s birthday.

So there could be different reasons for different people and if you really want to know how to hide messages on iPhone, this post suggests you different ways to do that.

Disable preview message on an iPhone.
Disable lock screen messages notifications
Hide messages on iPhone with Apps.
How to hide messages on iPhone with Cydia Tweak

Disable Messages Preview on an iPhone

iPhone itself comes with a significant amount of security features but Apple understands it too that people are lazy and don’t want to unlock their iPhone to check out the messages, hence the company added this feature of message preview & swipe to reply messages.

You can view message snippet without actually unlocking your iPhone but if you are kind of person who throws away your Phone just anywhere in the house, this feature could upset you. Anyone that gets hold of your iPhone can read the message snippet!

Therefore if you are too concerned about privacy, we suggest you disable message preview on your iPhone. Precaution is better than cure! neither the message preview will be available nor there will be any chance of the message being read.

Here is how you can disable message preview on your iPhone.

Go to Settings.
Then go to Notification.
Then go to Messages.
Go down under “OPTIONS” and then tap “Show Preview”
Chose “Never” and you are done!

You will now receive messages but the preview wouldn’t be available. You’ll have to unlock your iPhone to read the message you’ve received. Now you can leave the phone anywhere.

How to disable Message notification sound

If you don’t want to let anyone know that you’ve received a message at all, you can disable message notification sound. When this feature is disabled, you will not hear any sound of messages being received. Make sure you check your iPhone whenever possible to see if you’ve received an urgent message.

Here is how to disable message notification sound.

Go to Notifications
Then go to messages
Then go to sounds
Go Vibration and select None!

Disable Lock Screen Messages notifications

If you think you need even more protection, you can completely disable message notification on an iPhone. Disabling this option wouldn’t notify you of any new message that you haven’t received.

This is something I wouldn’t want to do because I need to get notified of new messages, however, it adds an extra layer of security if you need more protection. Here is how to disable Lock Screen Message notifications:

Go to Notifications
Then go to messages
Turn off “Show on Lock Screen”

You will no longer be seeing messages snippet on the locked screen.

Hide messages on iPhone with an Apps

The above two methods will either disable the notification completely or disable message preview to popup on your iPhone locked screen. While these two options add enough security, few people want to hide the conversation from inside the messaging app.

There are plenty of apps for this purpose but many of them are bogus and don’t work. However, we tested the below apps that could help you hide messages on your iPhone easily.

CoverMe Private Calls and Text Message

If you are looking to lock your text messages and secure calls, this app is one of the best options. Not just it hides text messages on your iPhone, it also end-to-end encrypts your calls as well. Not just that it allows you to send disappearing messages and recall sent messages.

The features that the CoverMe app offers to the iPhone user are huge and the best option to protect messages and calls on the iPhone. It is pretty easy to install and use. It allows you to hide or unhide the messages by shaking the iPhone.

All the calls and the text messages are end-to-end encrypted that assures you of maintaining privacy. It assigns you a new number to protect the privacy and lets you send a text message with this number.

It has been downloaded by several thousand people from iTunes and has hundreds of positive comments. The latest version is rated 4.5 out of 5 ! on iTunes.

Wire

If you are looking for another option, no app can be better than Wire App. It is a messenger that end-to-end encrypts all your messages and phone calls. It is a great alternative to the CoverMe app that offers you enough security to protect the messages.

The wire is added to iTunes a few months back but have received a great response from the users. It is rated 4+ on the iTunes app store.