What You Should Know:
- To add specific contact names, go to iCloud.com > Contacts > New Group > Add specific contact names.
- Open Contacts > Groups > Hide All Contacts on your iPhone.
- In the contacts app, use nicknames: Prefer Nicknames should be enabled under Settings > Contacts > Short Name.
This post will show you how to hide contacts on your iPhone so that you may feel more private.
What Is the Best Way to Hide Contacts on Your iPhone?
A default one-touch feature to conceal a specific contact or all of your contacts does not exist on iOS. There are, however, certain workarounds you can use.
The ways you use to hide contacts on your iPhone are dependent on how private you want your contacts to be. Here are three approaches to consider.
Create Contact Groups in iCloud
On macOS or iCloud, you can establish contact groups. Then you can choose to conceal all of your contacts or only show a subset of them.
On iCloud, the instructions are shown.
1.Enter your Apple ID and password to access iCloud.
2.Contacts should be chosen.
3.Choose New Group from the “+” icon on the left sidebar.
4.Assign a name to the new Group.
You have three options for adding names to this contact group. The contacts from the All Contacts group are copied to your specified group in this step:
- Drag and drop names into the group from the contacts column.
- On Windows, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting non-contiguous contacts (Command key on macOS)
- Using the Shift key, select numerous contiguous contacts.
6.Select Contacts from the Phone app.
7.Groups should be chosen.
8.At the bottom of the screen, click Hide All Contacts.
9.When you return to the main Contacts screen, you’ll notice that all of your contacts have been hidden.
10.Return to Groups to see all of your contacts once more. To bring back your entire contact list or just a selected Group, select Show All Contacts.
Tip: The size of a contact group is entirely up to you. You can either make a single group and hide all of your connections, or make a larger group of important contacts and hide the rest.
Hide Real Contact Names using Nicknames
In the Contact app’s first and last name boxes, you can hide any name by entering a nickname. However, Short Names or Nicknames can be set up in Settings on iOS. Nicknames aren’t perfect, but they can help you hide individual contact names on the call screen or in the Contacts list.
1.Select the name you wish to give a nickname to from the Contacts list.
2.Choose Edit.
3.Add a field by scrolling down and tapping it.
4.Choose Nickname from the drop-down menu. On the contact’s information screen, this is added as an extra field.
5.Any moniker will suffice. Instead of the person’s true name, this name will appear on the screen when they call.
6.Prefer Nicknames must be enabled in Settings > Contacts > Short Name for iOS to use it.
Note:When a call comes in on iOS 15, a bug may prevent the nickname from being displayed. Nicknames, on the other hand, function with Spotlight Search and iMessage.
Turn off the settings for Spotlight Search.
A Spotlight search can be used to locate specific contacts. Unless you disable the Spotlight Search options, Spotlight can display contacts even when the screen is locked.
1.Go to Siri & Search in Settings.
2.Go down the list of apps and select Contacts.
3.Under While Searching and Suggestions, turn off each option.
How Do I Find Hidden Contacts on My iPhone?
You may have forgotten about certain connections that you had hidden in a Group. Return to Groups to find them. To bring back your whole contact list, select Show All Contacts.
On iMessage, how do you hide a contact?
On iMessage, there are no default techniques for totally hiding contacts. These two ways, on the other hand, can provide you with a sense of privacy.
Message Alerts can be turned off.
Using a private messaging app or deleting the conversation is the most safe approach to hide a contact on iMessage. However, you may get some privacy by concealing your text alerts.
1.Open the Messages app on your phone.
2.Select the iMessage contact you want to send a message to.
3.Select the Profile icon from the drop-down menu.
4.Toggle the Hide Alerts switch to On.
Message Filtering is a useful tool.
You can also delete a contact’s number from Contacts to hide them. Unknown senders’ messages are subsequently sorted into a different folder on iOS. It also disables iMessage notifications from people who aren’t in your address book. Then look through the Unknown Senders list to see what they’ve sent.
1.Remove the specific contact from the list.
2.Go to Messages > Message Filtering > Settings > Message Filtering > Unknown Senders should be blocked.
3.Toggle the toggle switch to on.
Note:The procedures outlined above can help safeguard your privacy from prying eyes, but a skilled user can readily circumvent them. To hide your contacts, use the preceding approaches with iOS’s lock screen privacy settings.
FAQ
On my iPhone, how can I erase several contacts?
There isn’t a quick way to delete several contacts with iOS. On a Mac, though, you can do so. Go to iCloud and pick Contacts, or open the Contacts app. While holding Command, click the contacts you want to delete from the list, and you can pick multiples. Then, on your keyboard, press Delete to delete them all at once. Because your Contacts app syncs across all of your Apple ID-enabled devices, any changes you make will be reflected on your phone.
How can I move contacts from one iPhone to another?
Because your contacts are synced with your Apple ID, all you have to do to transfer them is sign in on the new device. You can also set up or restore your new iPhone using a backup of your old one.
