In this article, I’ll show you how to hide text messages on Android phones to make them inaccessible to everyone, even those with your passwords.
Text messages are meant to be private and not to be read by everyone —but our friends won’t understand that.
Your friends know the password to your Android phone, but you won’t want them to read messages from your girlfriend, would you?
Unfortunately, you can’t convince them.
What if you found a way to hide your text messages so that people with access to your phone never get to read your messages. You’ll be excited for sure, but what’s the way?
How To Hide Text Messages On Android
There are many SMS apps created explicitly with users’ privacy in mind. These apps usually come loaded with features such as SMS archiving or encryption. These features allow you to lock or hide your messages, making them hardly accessible by your stalking friends.
It’s always better to use apps preloaded on your device for better performance. Since the Google Messages app is preloaded on most phones and specifically designed for Android’s performance, it should be the first go-to option to hide your text messages on Android.
How To Hide Text Messages Using The Google Messages App
The Google Messages app is built by Google, an efficient messaging app packed with loads of features to make sending, receiving, and hiding text messages effortless on your Android phone.
Here’s a short guide on how to hide text messages on Android phones with the Google Messages app.
The Google Messages app is installed on Google Pixel devices and a load of other Android devices by default. However, there are still some Android devices lacking the app.
Suppose you don’t already have the Google Messages app on your phone. It is available on Google Play.
Open your messages, and swipe right to archive.
Google Messages hides and doesn’t offer a locking feature for your Android phone. The effectiveness of hiding your text messages with Google Messages depends mainly on how well your friends trust that you’re hiding nothing from them.
You can access your archived messages by tapping the three right dots at the top right corner of the interface and selecting “Archived.” It reveals a list of your archived messages.
While hiding text messages using the Google Messages app might seem simple and intuitive, it is insecure. Anyone can easily snoop on your messages by tapping the three dots at the top right and tapping Archived.
What if you wanted a more secure app that hides your messages?
Then you need a more secure messaging app that offers better authentication options. An app you can use is Vault-Hide SMS, Pic, and Videos App.
How to hide messages on your Android phone using Vault
Vault-Hide SMS, Pic and Videos app (which I will after that shorten as Vault) is an app that offers much more than just hiding SMS. It provides better authentication options than Google’s messaging app and allows you to hide your digital media files.
If you were searching for how to hide text messages on Android, I recommend downloading the Vault app.
You can also set it to take a picture of someone trying in vain to access your messages after a defined number of attempts. It’s a great way to discover why your messages are always read!
The Vault SMS app is available for free download on Google Play and variable app stores. Complete the following steps if you’ll like to hide your messages securely with Vault SMS app.
Open the app, and set it up. However, Vault-Hide SMS, Pic, and Videos require a password before use. This password will be used to hide your messages and whatever you choose to lock into the Digital Vault.
After launching the app and tapping “Start” on the first page, you will be required to set a password.
- Select SMS and Contacts
After setup, select SMS and Contacts on the resulting screen. It takes you to a screen where you can view encrypted text messages. As you’ve not set up any yet, you will need to add contacts to block messages.
At the top right of the screen, tap the ‘+’ icon, and a list of your contacts and messages appear. Import as many as you wish, and you’re good to go.
After that, messages received from these selected contacts will be saved in the private SMS box, which you can only access by entering a valid password.
Downsides to using Vault-Hide SMS, Pic, and Videos include a non-intuitive interface. Also, when you forget your password, all your hidden messages are gone. It is more of a security feature than a downside, anyway.
Alternative apps to hide text messages on Android
There are loads of apps that offer SMS security, but only a few ones are trustworthy. While they might seem to do the promised work correctly, you’re probably downloading potentially unwanted programs to your device unknowingly.
If Google Messages and the Vault SMS app don’t meet your needs, other trusted, free trusted apps are usable. Go SMS Pro, Private SMS & Call – Hide Text, and Calculator all work well.
Are you surprised to hear Calculator?
Yes, Calculator seems like a Calculator app on your phone but is a hidden vault for text messages. Enter 123+=, and your hidden space opens instantly. Your girlfriend will never know you’re hiding messages from her!
Isn’t that intelligent?
Conclusion
Privacy is more of a right than a feature. While the digital world has been increasingly adopting privacy, so little has been done in SMS messages. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t get SMS privacy if you wanted to. Use one of the apps recommended in this article, and your friends will completely lose access to your messages.