Samsung's Privacy Display could be one of the most sought after phone features of 2026 - but will iPhone get it?

Apple could be following in the footsteps of Samsung in the future with the iPhone getting the privacy display tech that was recently shown off on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Recent rumours leaked - by trusted leakster Ice Universe - suggest that this privacy tech could be coming to Apple MacBook laptops in the relatively near future. If they're developing it for a whole new class of Apple device, it makes sense that the even more simple jump from smartphone to smartphone would be incoming. In fact you'd expect that to happen first, right?

Here's the Samsung video showing off the tech working in a real world example on a busy train.

We don’t scroll and tell | Samsung - YouTube

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How does a privacy display work?

Interestingly this privacy display idea is already available as a retrofit for many phones. You can go online right now and find a whole host of providers offering screen covers that reduce the viewing angle on your smartphone to deliver this privacy.

The difference with this newer, baked-in, version of the tech is that it's software integrated too. So rather than this being a permanently on solution, as is the current case, the updated built-in version can be controlled via the phone. This is a combination of software and hardware that allows you to turn the system on and off as needed.

Even more excitingly, this could work intelligently. Imagine this turning on when the phone detects you're commuting, on a certain network, or in a busy environment using sensitive apps. That would mean you could use your phone as usual, confident that anything sensitive will automatically enable restricted viewing, so only you can see what you're doing.

This level of just-works ease is typical of Apple, so expecting it to land in a future iPhone isn't a big jump. When you also consider that Apple OLED display tech comes from Samsung, which has launched this new privacy tech, it's almost hard to imagine it won't hit iPhones in the near future.

When will privacy display land on iPhone?

Since this requires both hardware and software to work, this isn't something that will appear on current iPhone models. So, should it be coming, we won't be able to expect to see it until the next generation of iPhone.

The iPhone 18 could be the first Apple smartphone to feature a privacy display upgrade. Whether Apple keeps this for top-end models or will roll it out across all the iPhone options remains to be seen.