Samsung's Teasing A Big New Privacy Feature That'll Prevent Snooping In Public

We often think nothing of using our smartphones in public. Quite apart from dangers such as theft, it can leave you open to strangers reading a message or even learning a password over your shoulder. For industry giants like Samsun, one priority must be to work on new features tailored to make snooping much more difficult. 

In late January 2026, a release from Samsung Mobile Press announced that the company has been working on such a feature for five years, one built from a long period of adapting to owners' use of their devices and built around the concept of allowing them to choose the security measures they wish to use. "The result is a fusion of hardware and software expertly calibrated to protect you without getting in your way," Samsung states, and the brand has provided some brief teaser snippets of the feature in action.

Above, we can see a user in a crowded elevator, a scenario in which anybody behind you could surely sneak a peek of your screen if they were inclined to. The clip suggests, though, that this feature is able to obscure your Pattern lock from certain angles as you input it, to prevent anybody else from learning your combination. The teasers also show the feature being used to the same effect while inputting a password, and to obscure the text of a message being sent on a busy train while an onlooker tries to snoop from above a seated passenger. At the time of writing, it isn't confirmed when this feature will arrive or precisely how the technology works, but it is likely that more will be revealed soon, perhaps along with the much-anticipated Galaxy S26 Ultra. Its predecessor was one of the best Samsung phones of all time, after all. 

There's a reason, of course, that Samsung offers users a broad range of ways to secure their devices. From Patterns to PINs and from fingerprints to passwords, many of which you may have stored via Samsung Pass, we have our preferences that suit the way we use our smartphones, and particular settings for one user could be impractical or a simple inconvenience for another. This is why, Samsung's press teaser notes, this new privacy system will be fully customizable to match the individual's preferences. 

If it's the vulnerable password-inputting moment that you want to assure some privacy for, that will also be an option, Samsung notes. If it's your use of a particular app or apps that you want to remain private, you'll have the opportunity to set that accordingly. "You can also choose to protect specific parts of your experience, such as notification pop-ups," the press release goes on, suggesting that any potentially private text messages, transaction details or anything else you don't want the public to see can be hidden. "Privacy at a pixel level," as the brand calls it, would appear to mean applying a dimming effect to those pixels from certain angles. 

It is unclear, at present, whether the feature will implement face detection to determine whether somebody other than the owner is looking at their screen. It's unlikely that there will be long to wait before we find out more, but until then, there's no doubt that this could be a very valuable addition, for those frequent travelers who are extremely wary of using their devices in public.