How to Delete Hidden Apps on Android

What are hidden apps on Android

When you look at your phone, you probably see lots of your apps on your home screen and even more in the app drawer (this is the list of apps that appears when you swipe up or tap on the dotted icon on your home screen).

But there are other apps on your phone, too. And these ones are hidden.

Hidden apps might not appear on your home screen or app drawer at all, or if they do, they might be disguised. What looks like an innocent calculator app might in fact be a hidden tracking app or game.

Hidden apps might be:

• Apps that come pre-installed. When you buy a new phone, it has a lot of software already on it, some of which is hidden. Some of these apps are crucial for your phone to function. But some pre-installed apps aren’t so useful and just fill up your phone’s storage space—these are often called bloatware.
• Legitimate apps that you’ve chosen to hide. You might choose to make apps invisible for a few reasons—maybe you’re living with a controlling partner, or you just don’t want all of your apps visible to anyone who can see your phone.
• Spyware that someone else has installed. If someone has access to your phone and wants to spy on you, they might install tracking apps. Alternatively, if you’ve accidentally downloaded malicious software from a website or email, your phone might have been infected with spyware that way, too—so it doesn’t always mean that your stalker is someone with access to your phone.

What Android apps are spyware? They might be apps that track your location, your messages, or even the websites you visit. To make them harder for their victims to find, they’re often hidden by default. But don’t worry—I’ll explain how to find and uninstall hidden apps on Android.

Why do hidden apps exist?

There are a few reasons that apps might be hidden on your phone—and some of them are innocent.

• Apps might be hidden to prevent you accidentally deleting them. This is most likely if it’s an app that handles a critical system function, and came pre-installed with your device.
• Apps might be hidden for your own privacy. You might choose to hide some apps yourself—a pregnancy tracker that you don’t want colleagues to see, maybe, or a photo vault. Alternatively, some banking or financial apps might be hidden to keep your financial information secure.
• Apps might be hidden to avoid parents seeing them. Some gaming or social media apps might encourage young users to hide them so that their parents can’t find them—or to try and avoid parental control apps.
• Apps might be hidden so that they can track you without your knowledge or permission. A partner, family member, or even employer might choose to install tracking apps on your phone to find out what you’re doing. This might be because you’re a minor, and they’re using parental control apps for legitimate purposes. Or, if you’re older, it could be because they’re trying to control or stalk you. If you’re worried about this, check out our article on the best anti-spyware for Android.

You may see apps like mSpy, FlexiSpy, Hoverwatch, or Eyezy in your app list. These are all tracking apps that can be used for surveillance.

How to find hidden apps on Android

It’s important to know how to detect spy apps on Android. Whether you’re worried about being tracked by someone you know or a stranger, I’ll show you how to find and remove hidden apps on Android.

You might also want to remove innocent hidden apps from your phone. Maybe you’re running low on storage space, or you suspect that bloatware running in the background is slowing your phone down.

However, we need to find hidden apps on Android before we can delete them. There are a few different ways to do this, depending on how well the apps are hidden. And you don’t need to be a tech genius!

How to find hidden apps on Android:

• Check the app drawer if you haven’t already—swipe up to access it.
• Go to Settings > Apps, and look through the list.
• Go to Settings > Home screen > Hide apps, and check whether any are listed as hidden.
• Use your phone’s search feature to look for the app if you know its name.
• Use a spyware scanner, like Clario Anti Spy’s Spyware scan, to check your phone.

I’ll explain a little more about the last option: running a spyware scan. Clario Anti Spy’s Spyware scan can alert you to any apps that look suspicious, allowing you to review and fix the issues quickly.

How to run a spyware scan on your Android phone:

1. Download Clario Anti Spy and sign up for a subscription.
2. Open the app and choose Spyware scan.
3. When the scan is complete, tap Review & Fix on any suspicious apps.

Ways to remove hidden apps on Android

So now you’ve found something: how do you uninstall hidden apps on Android? You can’t remove them from the home screen or the app drawer, but don’t worry—there are still ways.

If an app is on our stalkerware apps list, you’ll want to remove it as quickly as possible. Even if you don’t think the apps you’ve found are malicious, you might still want to remove them.

1. Delete hidden apps via Settings

The easiest way to uninstall hidden apps on Android is by using Settings. With just a few taps, you can remove most apps.

How to delete hidden apps via Settings on Android:

1. Open Settings and tap Apps.
2. Select the app you want to remove, and tap Uninstall.

2. Disable pre-installed bloatware

Unfortunately, you can’t always delete pre-installed bloatware apps. So, when you’re trying to uninstall hidden apps on your Android, you’ll only be able to disable these ones. Fortunately, this still means that they won’t be running in the background.

How to disable pre-installed bloatware on your Android phone:

1. Go to Settings > Apps.
2. Tap on one of the pre-installed apps and choose Disable. You’ll see an alert warning you that disabling this app might cause other apps to stop working properly. If you’re sure that you want to disable the app, tap Disable app.

If the app has a really vital function, it might not let you disable it. For example, on my Samsung phone, I can’t disable my camera, the Phone or Messages functions, the Files app, Settings, or emergency alerts. If you try to disable one of these apps, the Disable button will either be greyed out or not shown.

3. Remove hidden apps with device administrator privileges

Some apps won’t let you uninstall them immediately. Sometimes, this is because they’re necessary for your phone to function—as I mentioned above, I can’t disable or uninstall my camera or Settings app.

If your phone is issued by your company, it might have some device admin apps installed. Your employer might use this to disable certain features, or access it remotely if necessary. Parental control apps might need device administrator privileges too.

But sometimes, malicious tracking apps request device administrator privileges as well—meaning that you can’t easily remove them. Instead, you need to change their permissions first.

How to remove apps with device administrator privileges:

1. Go to Settings > Security and privacy, then tap Other security settings.
2. Tap Device admin apps, and check to see if any apps have admin permissions.
3. Depending on your phone, you may need to toggle a switch to remove admin permissions or tap Deactivate this device admin app.
4. Now, you should be able to delete the app via Settings > Apps > App Name > Uninstall.

4. Use Safe Mode to remove hidden apps

Safe Mode allows you to start your phone up without any third-party apps opening. When it starts up in Safe Mode, it only loads its pre-installed apps.

Lots of tracking apps will be set to open automatically. But they won’t launch in Safe Mode. So, if you suspect that someone’s tracking you, reboot into Safe Mode before you remove the hidden tracking apps.

How to access Safe Mode if your phone is already on:

1. Hold down the Power and Volume Down keys.
2. Tap and hold the Power Off icon until the Safe Mode option appears. Tap to restart in Safe Mode.

How to access Safe Mode if your phone is turned off:

1. Hold down the Power key until the phone begins to turn on.
2. Immediately press and hold the Volume Down key.

Once you’re in Safe Mode, you can remove apps using Settings. Restart your phone and go back to Settings > Apps to check if they’re gone.

5. Reset your Android device (If necessary)

If you can’t remove hidden apps on your Android, you can reset your phone to factory settings.

This should only be done as a last resort—you will lose all your data and settings when you reset your phone.

Running a factory reset might take a while, and you’ll need to make sure it’s connected to a power supply and that you have an internet connection.

How to reset your Android:

1. Go to Settings > General Management.
2. Tap Reset, and then choose Factory data reset. Follow the on-screen instructions to fully reset your phone.

Conclusion

Hidden apps on your Android aren’t always suspicious. Sometimes, they’re pre-installed useful software or simply unnecessary bloatware.

However, some hidden apps could be spyware designed to track you. Because of that, it’s important to know how to uninstall hidden apps on Android. But also, it’s crucial to know how to prevent hidden apps from being installed—and how to catch malicious app installations quickly.

How to prevent hidden apps from tracking your Android phone:

• Enable Google Play Protect to help keep your device safe.
• Change your phone’s settings to restrict app installations from unknown sources (you can do this by going to Settings > Apps > Special Access > Install unknown apps).
• Check your app permissions regularly (you can do this by going to Settings > Security and privacy > Privacy > Permission manager).
• Check your Google Play account regularly for unexpected or suspicious downloads.

But, of course, the quickest way to check for hidden malicious apps is to run a spyware scan. Clario Anti Spy’s Spyware scan can detect suspicious apps with just a few taps, making you feel safe using your phone again.