Dread often accompanies giving someone else your iPhone to use, largely due to the fear of unintended prying into your personal text messages, photos, or even notes. The good news is that Apple has introduced four unique tools that serve as excellent safeguards against such invasions of one's digital privacy. Features such as Guided Access effectively locks a user to a selected app, and the option to hide apps from the home screen, offer great protection.

At times, others might borrow your iPhone to use certain apps - perhaps for checking social media, emails, or for gaming purposes. Yet, the unsaid concern is that they may venture out to explore other apps. To counter this, Apple has introduced Guided Access, that locks the user to a specific app. The feature is particularly useful when handing over your phone to a child, limiting them to one app and blocking access to others. This trick has an additional security system and passcode, so even if someone knows your main iPhone unlock code, your other apps remain inaccessible.

Setting up Guided Access is fairly straightforward. Go to Settings and under Accessibility, turn on Guided Access. Then, open the app you wish to use, triple click the side button, select Guided Access, and click Start. Enter a passcode, and then re-enter it. Following this, you can also activate Face ID or Touch ID to end a Guided Access session.

There may be personal photos on your device that you do not wish to share with others. Fortunately, Apple allows you to hide such sensitive photos from your album by creating a separate folder in the Photos app. This hidden photos folder can only be accessed via a face or fingerprint ID. To hide a photo, open your Photos app, select the image you wish to hide, tap the More button and select Hide. During this process, you will be asked to confirm if you wish to hide the selected media.

Many users utilize the Notes app to pen down personal and sensitive messages, and might not want them to be accessible to anyone using their iPhone. To add a layer of security to your notes, you can choose to lock individual ones. Simply navigate Settings, find Notes and select Password. Tap on Use Custom Password make sure it is different from your device's primary password, or lock your notes using Face ID or Touch ID.

We all have apps that we would prefer to keep private- be it dating apps or even work-related apps, the access to which can leak undesired information about ourselves. Happily, Apple allows you to hide these apps quite easily. Just tap and hold the app icon on your home screen, then select Remove App , and then opt for Remove App from the Home Screen. Do bear in mind that the app remains accessible in your library and via search.