Typing your phone's PIN or password, or drawing your unlock pattern, somewhere public is one of those everyday moments where security matters. A glance at your screen is one thing, but someone watching you key in the code that unlocks the whole phone is another.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a built-in fix for this. You can set Privacy Display to switch on the moment you start entering a PIN, pattern, or password, then switch off again once you're in.
Here's how it works and how to set it up.
What Privacy Display's PIN, pattern, and password trigger does
Privacy Display narrows the screen's viewing angle so nobody beside or above you can read it, or at least have a harder time doing so. With the PIN, pattern, and password trigger on, the phone turns that effect on automatically every time the lock screen or a secured app asks you to authenticate.
You don't have to remember to enable anything. Type your code, get in, and Privacy Display turns back off on its own.
How to set it up
Open Settings and go to Display > Privacy Display > Conditions for turning on. Flip the toggle at the top to ON, then enable the PIN, pattern, password option. That's all.
From now on, any time you're prompted for a PIN, pattern, or password — unlocking the phone, opening an app that uses your device lock for security, accessing Secure Folder, and so on — the screen's viewing angle narrows while you type/draw and goes back to normal once you're done.
It only kicks in when you type a code
It's worth noting that this trigger fires only when you enter a PIN, password, or pattern. If you unlock with your face or fingerprint, Privacy Display stays off because there's nothing on the screen for anyone to read. If you don't want anyone looking at your phone screen even when using face or fingerprint unlock, you'll have to manually enable Privacy Display.
How to make the screen much harder to read
For the strongest privacy, enable the Maximum privacy protection option in the Settings > Display > Privacy Display menu. With it on, the screen is pretty much only readable dead-on, and entering a passcode is exactly where it makes the most sense.
Other ways to trigger Privacy Display
The same Conditions for turning on menu lets you switch Privacy Display on for specific apps or only when notifications come in. And if you'd rather tie it to where you are than to what you're doing, like whenever you leave the house, you can build that with Modes and Routines.
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