How to Hide Images Using Private Mode on your Samsung Galaxy S7

We know privacy and Android aren’t really in synchronization with each other, especially talking about the stock Android. There is an advantage of being the world’s most popular open source mobile platform and a disadvantage as well. Your data is not really secure unless you do something about it using third party apps. But that’s the beauty of open source system that if you have a team of software experts, then you can achieve a level of encryption that should, at least, slow down to the prying eyes.

Samsung has been ahead of Google in offering such features to its consumers, if you are using one of the handsets like Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, then you would be familiar with the option called Private Mode. Now with the launch of Samsung Galaxy S7, which is based on the Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Samsung has done some tweaks for this option. We have been using the device for quite a while now and have even posted a detailed review of it. Below we have shared the instruction on how you can enable the private mode to hide the photos on the Galaxy S7.

Note: This mode will be only useful to hide media content on the default Gallery, Voice Recorder and My Files app. It would be available to access by third-party apps, unless you have all together disabled the auto-sync settings on your device, which would prevent data from being synchronized with external servers. Also, the below procedure is applicable for Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone as well, since, the TouchWiz UI is similar on both of these handsets.

1. Launch the Settings app from the app drawer
2. Scroll down the menu and tap on the “Privacy and Safety” option.
3. You’ll find an option named Private mode, now tapping on would open a new window.
4. Switch ON the toggle button you see on the right hand side top corner. You’ll see a pop-up notifying you about what we did before you started following the instructions.

   

   

   
   
5. Now you will be asked to select the privacy mode access type, meaning what way you want to use to secure the data in Private Mode.
6. There are three ways; Pattern, PIN and Password, select the type you’d like to use to unlock the private mode files.

   

   

   

   
   
7. Once you have successfully enabled the mode, you can again tap on private mode access type option and enable alternative verification in the form of fingerprints.
8. For instance, go to gallery app, select the images you’d like to hide from the prying eyes.

9. Tap on More option you see on the top right corner. You’ll see a menu open, select the move to private and you’re good to go. All the selected images are moved to private folder now.

There is no limit to what size files you can move to private folder, but large files take a couple of minutes, so be patient, that’s all the device asks. Also, this time, around you doesn’t have to exit the private mode unlike in last iterations, as once you finish transferring the files to private mode, then it will automatically switch off the private mode. Now no one else would be able to access those files; they are secure from the prying eyes. And if you want to access those files, turn ON the private mode, and you’ll see them in the gallery. Securing your files was never that easy.