Consumer electronics company Samsung plans to roll out a new privacy feature that limits what people nearby can see on a Galaxy smartphone screen. This is to reduce the risk of others reading messages or viewing sensitive details in public places.
The upcoming feature allows users to control how much of the screen is visible to people around them. Instead of applying one setting to the entire phone, users can choose when and where added privacy is needed, such as when opening specific apps or entering passwords.
Samsung said the feature includes several visibility settings, giving users the option to adjust how much information is hidden from side angles. It can also be applied to certain elements, such as notification pop-ups, rather than the whole screen. Users can turn the feature on or off as needed.
The company said the development took more than five years and involved studying how people use their phones in everyday settings and which activities they consider private. The feature combines hardware and software controls designed to work in the background without interrupting normal use.
Samsung said the new privacy layer builds on its existing security framework, Samsung Knox, which has been used in Galaxy devices for more than a decade. Knox includes hardware-based protections such as Knox Vault and device-to-device safeguards under Knox Matrix.
The new feature adds another level of protection by managing privacy at the screen level. Samsung said it will be available on Galaxy devices in the near future.