How to Hide Apps on iPhone Using Cloak

Occasionally, there’ll be instances when you have to hand your iPhone to someone. But while you do this, you don’t want them to see certain apps on the device.

Hiding such apps is the best way to keep them private in such situations. While there are several methods to do this, most of them are ineffective and impractical.

Cloak promises to change this, as it offers a quick and easy way to hide apps on your iPhone. So, let’s check out this app in detail and see what you can do with it.

What Is Cloak?

Cloak is an app that lets you hide apps on your iPhone. Unlike other ways to hide iPhone apps, when you hide an app with Cloak, it completely removes it from the device, including the Home Screen, App Library, and notifications.

Similarly, Cloak offers the easiest method to hide apps on the iPhone. It involves a one-time setup and offers features like Safe Zones, which help you hide apps automatically when you leave a specified location.

Cloak is free to use and available for both iPhone and iPad. However, its free plan allows you to hide only three apps and limits access to some features. If you wish to hide more apps, you can upgrade to Cloak Pro with a one-time purchase, which gives you access to the entire feature set.

Download: Cloak (Free, in-app purchase available)

How to Use Cloak to Hide Apps on iPhone

Once you’ve installed the app, launch it and tap on the Continue button. Cloak will prompt you to give it access to Screen Time. Since the app uses Screen Time data to function, tap Continue to grant it access. Authenticate yourself by tapping the Allow with Face ID button and then hit Done.

With Cloak configured, it’s pretty easy to hide apps with it. From the app’s home screen, tap on the App Group 1 card to access the activity selection window. Hit the downward-pointing arrow next to the app category you think the apps you want to hide would be in and select the apps.

Once you’ve chosen the apps you want to hide, hit Done, and you’ll be taken back to the app’s main screen. Here you’ll see a number displayed on top of the card, indicating the number of apps you’ve selected to hide. Hit the Hide button below the card, and when it prompts you to confirm the action, tap on Continue.

Cloak will now hide all your selected apps from the device. And subsequently, you won’t see them on the Home Screen, App Library, or Notification Center.

Create Multiple App Groups in Cloak

Creating an app group and adding apps to it is one way to hide apps using Cloak. However, it isn’t the most efficient approach if you want to hide apps in different categories based on different contexts.

For instance, if you often need to hide banking apps and social media apps on your iPhone but want the banking apps to be hidden in one instance and social media in another, putting all the apps into one group will hide all of them at once.

An effective way to hide iPhone apps in such a situation is to set up multiple app groups in Cloak. Upgrade to Cloak Pro to unlock this feature.

Then, swipe left on the app group and tap the Create a new app group card. From here, hit the ellipsis button on the card and select Rename Group. Give an appropriate name to the group and hit OK. Go into the group and select the apps you want to hide.

Finally, when you want to hide apps in this group, tap the Hide button, and Cloak will hide them on your iPhone.

Automatically Hide Apps Using Safe Zones

Safe Zones is a Cloak feature that lets you automatically hide apps on your iPhone. It requires access to your location, after which it automatically hides the apps when you leave your home or workplace.

If you get distracted by social media apps at work easily, this feature can help curb that, as you can use it to hide all the apps you find distracting on your iPhone as soon as you leave home.

To set up a Safe Zone in Cloak, first enable location services on your iPhone. Next, open Cloak and go to the Safe Zones tab.

Here, hit the plus (+) button in the top-right corner and tap on an area in the map to set it as the zone center. Tap on the arrows next to Zone Diameter and pick a range from the available options, beyond which Cloak automatically triggers and hides the specified apps on your iPhone.

Now, Cloak, by default, doesn’t restore the hidden apps when you head back into the zone center. But if you want to change this behavior so that the apps get restored automatically, hit the ellipsis button next to the app group in the Safe Zones tab and tap Restore Apps on Entry to enable it.

What More Options Does Cloak Offer?

Aside from the ability to hide apps on your iPhone manually and automatically, the Cloak app also offers a few other nifty features. You can find them on the app’s Settings tab. And here are a few we find useful:

1. Passcode and Face ID

Since you’re using Cloak to hide apps, it makes sense to lock it with a passcode or Face ID. Doing so limits its access and prevents anyone from accessing it and unhiding the hidden apps on your iPhone.

2. Disable App Removal

If you hide apps with Cloak and uninstall it from your iPhone, the hidden apps get restored upon uninstallation. Thankfully, it offers an option to disable app removal to prevent anyone from deleting Cloak or any other app on your device.

3. Incognito Passcode

If you wish to take app cloaking to the next level, Cloak’s Incognito Passcode feature can help you do that. Available with Cloak Pro, the feature lets you disguise Cloak as a note-taking app. So, if you ever end up in a situation where you’re forced to unlock Cloak, you can enter the incognito passcode instead, and it’ll turn Cloak into a note-taking app.

Hiding iPhone Apps Is Easier Than You Think

Effectively hiding apps on iPhones so that they’re hidden entirely from the system seemed like a distant dream once. However, Cloak makes this possible while keeping the process fairly easy, as you’ve seen above.

Although Cloak might not be the first app to promise this functionality, it’s certainly one that lives up to expectations. It’s the most feature-rich of the available offerings and also offers an iPad app in case you want to hide apps on your iPad.