Samsung Galaxy S26's new privacy feature shields your phone from shoulder surfers
Say hello to a feature that’s been in development for five years
👀 Samsung’s first official teaser for the Galaxy S26 series is for a brand new privacy feature
🔒 A new panel includes an integrated privacy layer, so onlookers can’t see what you’re doing
🫣 Samsung says you’ll be able to choose which area of the screen to hide, or even enable it for specific apps
🤔 The feature is expected to be exclusively for Galaxy S26 devices
Samsung has revealed a new kind of screen for its upcoming Galaxy S26 devices that will give users more privacy.
In a series of new videos, Samsung has shown off its new ‘Privacy Display’ feature that’s expected to come to the flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra.
The new feature will bring the benefits of privacy screen protectors – the ability to hide your screen from any onlookers and ‘shoulder surfers’ – directly into the phone’s display for added convenience.
In a press release, Samsung says the added privacy layer built into the screen is “coming to Galaxy very soon”, and as much as it hasn’t given it the name “Privacy display” just yet, the name has been seen in a screenshot Samsung shared earlier on in January.
The teaser videos that Samsung has shown off demonstrate how content in the screen looks if viewed off-axis, meaning you aren’t looking at the phone straight on. Essentially, the contents of the display disappear to prevent prying eyes from seeing what’s going on.
It has also supplemented the videos with some additional information on how the privacy layer works. Samsung says it isn’t an “all or nothing” feature, and will let users protect certain parts of the display, such as for viewing notifications, enabling it when certain apps are opened, or when handling sensitive tasks such as inputting a password.
To quote Samsung directly, “Not everyone needs the same level of privacy. This new layer gives you the choice to decide what works best for you. You can customize it to raise your guard with specific apps, or when entering access details for more private areas of your phone. With multiple settings for adjusting visibility, you can limit what others can see based on the level of privacy protection you need.”
It also said it took “five years of engineering, testing and refining” to create the privacy layer, suggesting it’s been in development from at least the time the Galaxy S21 Ultra was unveiled.
The rumor is that the privacy layer will be exclusive to the top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra model, rather than also being available on the standard and Plus models of the phone.
Samsung is expected to unveil the new Galaxy S26 Ultra in late February at this year’s Galaxy Unpacked event, if a recent release date rumor is to be believed, before launching the phones in early March.
To go alongside the phone, it’s also expected that the upcoming Galaxy Buds 4 lineup will come at the same event, and we recently got some more information on the buds themselves.
Up next: Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 lineup has made an unexpected early appearance
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.