I don’t have a Galaxy S26 Ultra, so I use these tactics t…

Here’s how I stop shoulder surfers

Every time you pull out your phone in a public place, there’s a chance someone can see what’s on your screen. It’s a problem known as “shoulder surfing,” where someone nearby can glance at the display and see more of your personal information than you might realize. Recently, I read about Samsung’s new Privacy Display on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which narrows the viewing angles so people beside you can’t read your screen.

But the catch is that it’s limited to that one device. Since my phone doesn’t have that feature, I started using a few simple tricks to make my screen harder for others to peek at. It’s easy to assume that whatever is on your phone screen is only visible to you. In reality, smartphone displays are bright and easy to read from wide angles, which means people nearby can often see more than you expect.

In crowded places like trains, cafés, or waiting areas, it only takes a glance for someone to catch parts of a message, an email subject line, or a notification preview. Sometimes it’s unintentional, but it still means more of your personal information is visible than you might realize. After I noticed how easily others could see my screen, I began experimenting with a few simple tricks to make it more difficult for them to peek.

One of the easiest ways to protect your privacy in public is to hide notification previews on your lock screen. By default, many Android phones display the full content of notifications, including message text, email subjects, and reminders, even when you lock the device. That can be convenient, but it also means someone nearby can read parts of your conversations without ever unlocking your phone.

If your phone lights up on a table or while you’re holding it on public transport, anyone glancing at the screen might see more than you intended. To avoid this, you can change how lock screen notifications work. Instead of displaying the full message preview, Android can show only the app name or a simple notification alert until you unlock your device. To change this, open Settings > Notifications > Lock screen notifications.

From there, you can choose to hide the content of notifications, which limits what appears on the lock screen. Brightness is an often-overlooked factor when it comes to phone privacy. Using your phone at full brightness in a dim public space essentially makes it a beacon for prying eyes. I always make it a point to dim my phone whenever I am in a crowded area. Lowering the brightness not only makes it more difficult for others to see details on the screen, but it also reduces eye strain.

Additionally, you can enable the Extra Dim feature on your phone, which lowers the brightness beyond the normal slider settings. You will find it in Settings > Accessibility. It’s designed for eye comfort at night, but it also makes the screen less visible to nearby people. The angle at which you hold your phone also affects visibility. Tilting the screen slightly downward or holding it closer to your body narrows the viewing angle and blocks direct lines of sight from people nearby.

Even a small adjustment can make it harder for someone sitting beside you to read what’s on the display. Another useful privacy feature built into Android is app pinning. It allows you to lock your phone to a single app so that whoever is using your device can’t switch to anything else without unlocking it. It is helpful when you hand your phone to someone for a quick task. For example, if you’re showing a photo, sharing a web page, or letting someone make a phone call, app pinning ensures others can’t accidentally swipe into your messages, email, or other apps.

To enable it, open Settings > Security & privacy > App pinning and turn the feature on. When enabled, open the app you want to pin, go to the Recent apps screen, tap the app’s icon, and select Pin. After that, the phone stays locked to that app until you unpin it using your lock screen gesture or PIN. Another small change that helps reduce screen visibility is switching to Dark mode. A dark background with light text reduces the amount of light spilling off the edges of your screen, making it harder for someone to see from the side.

While it doesn’t completely stop someone from seeing your screen, it does make them less likely to draw attention. It’s a simple tweak, but combined with a few other habits, dark mode can make your screen feel a little less exposed when you’re using your phone around other people. If you want a more direct solution, there are also hardware options that can make your phone screen harder to read from the side.

The most common one is a privacy screen protector. It uses a special filter that narrows the viewing angles of your display. When you look at the phone screen directly from the front, it appears normal. However, anyone viewing it from the side will see a much darker display. Privacy screen protectors are widely available and work with almost any smartphone. It makes them a practical alternative for devices that don’t have a built-in privacy feature, such as the Privacy Display found on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

However, privacy screen protectors have their drawbacks. The filter slightly reduces overall brightness and can make colors appear a bit muted. As a result, you may need to increase the brightness more often to compensate, which could impact battery life. Being mindful about how you use your phone in public might feel a bit excessive, but our phones regularly display sensitive information. Personal messages, banking apps, work emails, and even private photos can all briefly appear on the screen, and it only takes a glance from someone nearby to see more than you intended.

I avoid opening sensitive apps on crowded trains or in cafés when someone is seated close by. If I need to respond to a personal email or message, I’ll often reposition myself so that my screen isn’t visible to everyone around me. When I first heard about the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display feature, it seemed like the perfect solution for preventing people from peeking at your phone.

The downside, however, is that it is currently limited to this specific device. Hiding lock screen notifications, using Dark mode, adjusting brightness, and being mindful of how you use your phone in crowded places can all make your screen less visible to others.

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