It is estimated that about 84% of the mobiles that exist in the world have installed the WhatsApp. This is especially because is free instant messaging and lets you know when a person has received and read our chat.
From this it appears that the app we are going to analyze handles important data related to the privacy of users. Therefore, anyone who accesses a mobile will be able to see WhatsApp content.
In the following paragraphs we will show you how you will ensure that your data is protected by means of a tool that allows you to hide WhatsApp on your mobile. We will indicate all the relevant steps so that your data is protected.
What are the main reasons why you should hide your WhatsApp?
As WhatsApp is the most used instant messaging at present, many people interact with this platform for different reasons. Due to this, it is convenient to protect the app on your mobile so that you do not have any problems in the future.
Among the most prominent reasons are the following:
Prevent third parties from accessing
Perhaps this is the main reason. As we told you before, WhatsApp is one of the tools that users interact the most during the day. This generates that in your account you keep a lot of important information for yourself and also for other people.
If an intruder accesses your account you will be able to see all the activities that you carry out and that many times is not convenient for you, your work or your personal relationships.
Improve privacy and security
Messages are sent within WhatsApp, among other things, which contain private information on financial movements. Accordingly, all data, photographs and any other type of message that contains private information can harm the security of your bank accounts, credit cards or virtual wallets.
Also, intruders could learn passwords of ecommerce platforms and thus buy with your name things that you have not authorized.
Impersonate your identity
You must not forget that WhatsApp does not identify the user, but the account. So anyone who enters the application you have installed on your mobile can impersonate you.
This can have important consequences in your life, since your contacts will receive messages as if you had sent it.
Safeguarding important information
Some people use this means of instant messaging to protect their work information. For this reason they take photos of payment vouchers or any other document related to working life.
If your WhatsApp account is hacked, anyone can delete this data and messages, causing you to lose all verification of your work or other important tasks for you.
Steps to hide the Whatsapp icon from the menu of your smartphone on Android and iOS
As you may have already noticed, if a person enters the application of your WhatsApp account it can cause serious inconvenience in various aspects of your life. Fortunately you can hide the icon of this app within the menu of your mobile.
For this you must follow the steps that we will show you below, according to the operating system you have:
On Android
In your Android operating system you can hide the WhatsApp application if you keep it in the safe. This app, native to some smartphone models, will allow you to have instant messaging hosted and to access it you must do so through the safe.
The steps you must follow to enable the safe are as follows:
- Go to the menu of "Applications".
- Find the option "Safe".
- If you do not have this option enabled, you must do so at this time. You will have to enter a password of 6 digits or more and establish a secret question.
- Then, when you are already in this app, just subtract to search "WhatsApp". For this you will have to click on the option "+" and a menu will open where you will have to choose Applications and then instant messaging.
In this way, the WhatsApp icon will disappear from the menu, but it will be integrated into the safe of your mobile.
In case you do not have this tool, you will have to use a third party application. In this case we will take as an example Apex Launcher. To follow the guide, you must first download the app.
The steps you will need to take are these:
- Open Apex Launcher on your mobile.
- Go to "Setting".
- Then search "Application Drawer Options" and click on it.
- Choose the fit "Hidden applications".
- When the list of applications that you can hide opens, search for WhatsApp and click on it.
- To finish, click on "Save".
- If you prefer, you can add a PIN to increase the level of security.
On iOS
What you can do on your iPhone is to camouflage the WhatsApp icon in a folder. You must follow these instructions:
- With your finger hold the application of WhatsApp until it starts moving.
- Drag the instant messaging app to any other and release WhatsApp.
- Inside the folder, which was automatically formed, choose WhatsApp again and drag it to the right edge of the folder and release the app.
When you press the start button the folder will appear, but you will not see the WhatsApp icon.
Learn to hide and archive conversations on Whatsapp easy and fast
If you think that hiding the WhatsApp icon is too striking for other people (so they would begin to doubt you) and you need to have private conversations protected, you can use another tool that gives you the same application so that your messages are safe.
The steps you will have to carry out are very simple, you just have to follow this guide:
- Open WhatsApp on your mobile.
- Go to the tab of Chats.
- Choose the conversation you want to restrict. You will have to hold it down for a few seconds until it is selected and turns gray.
- Then go to the top right of the screen and click on the icon "File", which is represented with a drawer and a down arrow.
- A message will appear on the screen telling you that you have archived that conversation and you can undo the action by clicking on the option with that name.
When you want to see that conversation you will have to go to the end of the chat tab and click on "Filed". In this section, all the conversations you have saved will appear in chronological order.
Remember that if you send a new message to an archived conversation, it will no longer be in that state and will appear as recent in the Chats, so you must go back to perform the procedure that we indicate.
The best apps to hide other apps on Android and iOS
In case you do not want to use any of the tools that we have mentioned before, you can have third-party applications that will help you hide WhatsApp and other apps you want, according to the operating system you have on your mobile.
The best programs are:
Flick Launcher
It is available for Android, has a free version and a paid one. Being the second one free of advertisements and with additional functions that will allow you to save applications with different access passwords.
Also, will allow you to be integrated with Google Now Feed, which will allow you to combine different tools with fewer steps and increase the level of security.
Launch Center Pro
It is a tool for iPhone and iPad that will allow the user to have an application center that can be restricted according to the desired criteria. This will mean that every time you need to use some of the apps that are inside the Launch Center, you will not need to carry out extra steps.
It does not decrease the performance of the equipment and its interface allows to speed up the search for hidden applications.
Nova Launcher
This is one of the most downloaded apps from Google Play for this type of task. Its functions allow the user to have modern screens in whose application drawer you can find horizontal and vertical displacements, thus achieving greater comfort for sight and use.
Within the paid version you can pinch or double tap on the home screen to execute functions that you have previously customized. In addition, within the application drawer, you can delete any app without having to uninstall it. It is available for Android.
Hider
You will be able to hide applications in parallel thanks to this tool that you can download for free from the official Google store. The appearance with which you will find in its interface is a simple calculator, but after completing a code you will be able to access the applications drawer.
In relation to WhatsApp, it will allow you to clone the messages and hide those data within the drawer intended for this purpose. This will make your work less every time you want to access certain types of information.
Parallel Space
How this tool works is to open two instances of the same application in parallel. This will allow you to open WhatsApp in a common way and another one under the environment of this app. This will result in all messages that are made through Parallel Space being hidden.