--- title: "How to Hide Telegram on iPhone: 4 Ways (iOS 27)" description: "Hide Telegram on iPhone in 10 seconds: Hide and Require Face ID moves it to a locked Hidden folder. Plus start a Secret Chat, alerts and search." url: https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/telegram lang: en-gb published: 2026-10-31 updated: 2026-10-31 author: "VaultForYou Editorial Team" publisher: VaultForYou --- # How to hide Telegram on iPhone > Telegram can disappear from your Home Screen and search in 10 seconds. Its name still turns up in a few places, listed below. Published 2026-10-31 - Updated 2026-10-31 - By VaultForYou Editorial Team - Checked against iOS 27 - 31 Oct 2026 ## Quick answer Touch and hold the Telegram icon, tap Require Face ID, then Hide and Require Face ID, and tap Hide App. It takes about 10 seconds on iOS 18 or later. Telegram moves to a locked Hidden folder in App Library and drops out of search. Telegram also has its own option inside the app: Start a Secret Chat. Its name can still appear in Screen Time. - **Fastest way:** Hide and Require Face ID (iOS 18 or later). - **Can it be hidden?:** Yes. It moves to the locked Hidden folder in App Library. - **Own privacy setting:** Start a Secret Chat. - **Still visible in:** Screen Time, Battery and your App Store purchases. - **iOS version:** iOS 18 or later - **Time needed:** About 10 seconds - **Difficulty:** Easy - **Needs an app?:** No - **Reversible?:** Yes - **Changes backups?:** No Telegram can be hidden in about 10 seconds with the iOS Hidden folder, and Telegram has 3 privacy settings of its own. Below are 4 ways, fastest first, and the places Telegram still shows up afterwards. We checked the iOS steps against Apple's iOS 27 documentation and Telegram's settings against its official help pages in October 2026. ## Method 1: Hide Telegram with Face ID (iOS 18 and later) This is the only built-in way that hides Telegram from your Home Screen, App Library and search at once. 1. **Find Telegram on your Home Screen** Touch and hold the Telegram icon until the quick actions menu opens. 2. **Tap Require Face ID** On iPhones with Touch ID it says Require Touch ID. You can also choose Require Passcode. 3. **Tap Hide and Require Face ID** Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. 4. **Tap Hide App** Telegram leaves the Home Screen and moves to the locked Hidden folder at the bottom of App Library. Telegram keeps working, and its data is untouched. Open it from the Hidden folder at the bottom of App Library. On iOS 17 or earlier, remove it from the Home Screen instead (see below). **What this does not do:** it doesn't hide Telegram from Screen Time, and it doesn't change iCloud backups. Anyone who knows your iPhone passcode can open the Hidden folder. ## Method 2: Telegram's own privacy settings iOS hides the app icon. Telegram itself can hide what's inside it. These settings work on any iOS version that Telegram supports. ### Start a Secret Chat Open the profile of the person, tap "...", then Start Secret Chat. Secret chats are end-to-end encrypted and support a self-destruct timer (tap the clock icon in the input field on iOS). ### Archive chats and hide the archive Swipe left on a chat to move it to Archived Chats. Swipe left on the archive to hide it from the chat list, and drag the screen down to see it again. An archived chat returns to the list when it gets a new notification, unless it is muted. ### Passcode Lock Go to **Settings -> Privacy and Security**. Sets a separate passcode that locks the Telegram app. On iPhone the section is labeled Passcode & Face ID, with Auto-Lock options from 1 minute to 5 hours, so Face ID can unlock it instead of typing the code. ## Method 3: Move Telegram photos into a vault Hiding the app doesn't hide photos you've saved from it. Those sit in your camera roll, where anyone scrolling Photos can see them. Move them into a vault, then delete the originals from Photos and empty Recently Deleted. > **Lock this in VaultForYou.** Keep Telegram photos in an encrypted vault that opens only with a pattern you draw. [Download on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/vaultforyou/id0000000000) See [how to hide photos in Telegram](/en-gb/hide-photos/telegram) for the in-app options. ## Other ways to hide Telegram - **Remove it from the Home Screen.** Touch and hold Telegram, tap **Remove App**, then **Remove from Home Screen**. It moves to App Library and still shows in search. - **Keep it out of Siri and search.** Go to **Settings -> Siri -> Excluded Apps**, tap **Add Apps** and select Telegram. Apple says excluded apps aren't available to Siri, Search or suggestions. - **Hide its notification previews.** Go to **Settings -> Notifications -> Telegram -> Show Previews** and choose **Never** or **When Unlocked**. - **Hide it from your App Store purchases.** In the App Store, tap your photo, tap **Apps & Purchase History**, then swipe left on Telegram and tap **Hide**. ## Does hiding Telegram hide its notifications, Siri suggestions, Spotlight and backups? | Where | Hidden with Face ID | Removed from Home Screen | |---|---|---| | Notification previews | Content hidden | Still shown | | Siri suggestions | Not shown | Still shown | | Spotlight search | App hidden from results | Still shown | | iCloud backup | Unchanged | Unchanged | Apple says information inside a locked or hidden app doesn't appear in places like notification previews, search and Siri suggestions. Hiding never changes what your iPhone backs up. ## How to unhide Telegram 1. **Open App Library.** Swipe left past your last Home Screen page. 2. **Open the Hidden folder.** Scroll to the bottom, tap Hidden and authenticate. 3. **Unhide Telegram.** Touch and hold Telegram, tap Don't Require Face ID and authenticate again. Telegram goes back to App Library. Drag it to your Home Screen from there. ## Hide Telegram on iPad The same Require Face ID menu works on iPad with iPadOS 18 or later. Hiding doesn't sync through iCloud, so hide Telegram separately on each device. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can you hide Telegram on iPhone? Yes. On iOS 18 or later, touch and hold Telegram, tap Require Face ID, then Hide and Require Face ID. Telegram moves to a locked Hidden folder in App Library and disappears from search. On older iOS versions you can only remove it from the Home Screen, which leaves it in App Library. ### Where does Telegram go when you hide it? It goes to the Hidden folder at the very bottom of App Library. Swipe left past your last Home Screen page, scroll down and tap Hidden. The folder opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. Telegram keeps working from there, with all its data. ### Does hiding Telegram delete it or its data? No. Hiding or removing Telegram from the Home Screen doesn't delete the app or anything in it. Only Delete App removes it from your iPhone. Even then, data stored in your Telegram account online is not deleted. ### Can someone tell that I hid Telegram? Possibly. The Hidden folder itself is visible at the bottom of App Library, though it needs Face ID or your passcode to open. Telegram can also still appear in Screen Time, the Battery list and your App Store purchase history. Anyone who knows your passcode can open everything. ### Does Telegram have its own lock? Yes. Telegram has Passcode Lock, under Settings -> Privacy and Security. It works alongside the iOS lock. Because it uses its own code, it can stop someone who knows your iPhone passcode. ## Bottom line Hide and Require Face ID is the fastest way to hide Telegram: about 10 seconds, and it's gone from your Home Screen and search. Add Telegram's own settings to hide what's inside it. For photos, a vault is the only option that takes them out of Photos. ## Sources - [Apple Support: Lock or hide an app on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/lock-or-hide-an-app-iph00f208d05/ios) - [Apple Personal Safety User Guide: Lock or hide apps on your iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/personal-safety/ipsd0be4c185/web) - [Apple Support: Change Siri settings on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/change-siri-settings-iphc28624b81abc/ios) - [Apple Support: Change notification settings on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/change-notification-settings-iph7c3d96bab/ios) - [Apple Support: Lock or hide an app on iPad](https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/lock-or-hide-an-app-ipad4026f2de/ipados) - [Telegram FAQ](https://telegram.org/faq) - [Telegram Blog: Chat Folders, Archive, Channel Stats and More](https://telegram.org/blog/folders) - [Telegram Blog: Auto-Save Incoming Media (Profile Photo Maker, Translating Entire Chats...)](https://telegram.org/blog/profile-pics-emoji-translations) - [Telegram Translations: iOS Settings strings (Passcode & Face ID, Auto-Lock)](https://translations.telegram.org/ru/ios/settings/) ## More Telegram privacy guides - [How to lock Telegram on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/lock-apps/telegram) - [How to hide photos in Telegram](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-photos/telegram) - [Telegram privacy on iPhone: every setting](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/apps/telegram) ## Hide apps for other apps - [How to hide Messages on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/messages) - [How to hide WhatsApp on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/whatsapp) - [How to hide Facebook Messenger on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/messenger) - [How to hide Signal on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/signal) - [How to hide LINE on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/line) - [How to hide Viber on iPhone](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps/viber) - [All hide-app guides](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/hide-apps) --- Our guides are written and fact-checked by the VaultForYou team against Apple's own documentation. We make VaultForYou, a private vault app for iPhone. Download on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/vaultforyou/id0000000000