Your iPhone comes with many different ways to protect your privacy and data, such as passcodes, biometrics, and encryption. But if you’re looking to go one step further, you can use your iPhone’s settings to hide messages on your iPhone so that they don’t appear in the Messages app or iMessage interface. Here’s how to do it!
Go to Settings > Privacy > Show Preview
The preview will keep your texts private if you want them to be, but if you don’t mind your messages being visible, then it’s okay to leave the setting at None. Setting it as None will only display an on-screen notification of new messages when a message comes in. You’ll know who sent it and the type of text that was sent (SMS, MMS, or Email), but not what was said.
In order for this preview screen not appear every time you get a new message there is one final step we need to take. Go back to Settings > Notifications > Messages and toggle Show Previews off. Now, all your text messages will be invisible until they are opened. But remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
If you are worried about somebody seeing what you are texting, even though they can’t read it without opening the message first, this might not be the right option for you. Another downside to this setting is that you won’t be able to see who messaged you while scrolling through your inbox because the preview won’t show up anymore. To turn previews back on, go back into Settings > Privacy > Show Preview and set it to whichever option you prefer.
Go back to Settings > Privacy > See Preview
In order to see the preview of messages before they send, you’ll need to switch that button off. Click this option and a red bar will appear across it telling you it’s been disabled. From there, when you want to send your text message, you’ll be able to read through all of it before pressing Send.
This is especially useful if someone sends something embarrassing by accident! You can also take screenshots with your phone camera. Make sure your screenshot feature is turned on in Settings > General > Usage > Enable Screenshot (if not already enabled).
Then, hold down the power button and home button simultaneously until the screen flashes white; then release them both quickly so you don’t have to worry about capturing anything else on your screen. When you’re ready to save, go back to Photos > Camera Roll and open up the screenshot from the list. Click on Save Image and select any folder where you’d like to save it for future reference.
Finally, make sure to review who has access to your location by going back into Privacy > Location Services > Change Location Services: By default, these are set as Always On; but if someone doesn’t need access or never visits your location, click Edit and remove their name from the list.
Go back to Settings > General > Accessibility
The iOS accessibility settings have the ability to hide messages. These messages are not deleted, they are only hidden. This can be done by going into the iPhone’s settings and turning off Allow Full Access. This will allow you to view the messages while they are hidden, but as soon as you turn Allow Full Access back on, all of your texts will show up again.
Turning off this setting is simple and it won’t take much time to find or activate. When you go back to Settings > General > Accessibility > tap VoiceOver > Turn ON VoiceOver. After doing this, there should be a button at the bottom that says Enable Screen Curtain. Press this button and then disable Allow Full Access in the list of options below. There will now be an option for screen curtain which you’ll want to enable.
Finally, scroll down until you see text previews and make sure it is turned OFF. If someone tries to message you, their message won’t show up; instead there will just be a blank space where the message would normally appear. You’ll know when someone has sent you a new message because either the home button (if on) or power button (if off) flashes three times in rapid succession when there is an unread text waiting for you.
Under Hearing, turn on Closed Captioning
You can turn closed captioning on or off in the Accessibility settings of your phone. To do this, go to Settings and scroll down until you see Accessibility. Tap it and tap Closed Captioning. Then tap the toggle switch so that the blue circle next to it turns green.
The green signifies that closed captioning is turned on. The text will be displayed underneath what’s being said, allowing you to watch with hearing impaired individuals without having their subtitles affect your experience of the video or show! A more subtle way to hide messages from others is by turning on Do Not Disturb.
Go to Settings and find Do Not Disturb. Turn the toggle switch so that the light gray square next to it turns white. Now, if a message comes in while Do Not Disturb is enabled, you’ll only see a notification – no sound or light will disturb your experience when using your device!