A new leak has surfaced to show the clearest picture yet of how Samsung’s rumored Privacy Display for the Galaxy S26 Ultra might operate, including an automatic mode that can dim or narrow viewing angles in crowded places and granular controls over what remains visible. If true, it would bring laptop-style electronic privacy tech to a premium phone, possibly making stick-on privacy screen protectors obsolete.
How the automatic privacy mode appears to work
Leaked One UI 8.5 screenshots – courtesy of tipster @achultra – show a new toggle to automatically turn on Privacy Display in places such as elevators or public transit. The interface hints at context awareness, instead of a fixed geofence, so the phone might rely on on-device cues—like motion patterns, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi saturation, and activity recognition—to guess when shoulder-surfing is more likely.
The UI screens for those indicate adjustable intensity, so users might choose a more aggressive angle limit or a scaled-back dim. That is important, because trade-offs between glare, brightness, and battery life can be very different inside or outside.
Granular controls around what remains visible
The leak reveals some of the options to allow certain things to be accessible whilst Privacy Display is enabled, like PIN, pattern, or password entry on the lock screen. There are also controls for hiding individual images, limiting notification previews and refining picture‑in‑picture visibility. In use, it means a video or navigation keeps playing for you while nearby passengers see only a dimmed, low-detail view.
Anticipate per-app rules being a logical next step, allowing you to whitelist email or calendar while locking down banking and messaging. Samsung has been doubling down on fine‑grained privacy in recent One UI editions and this seems to be able to dovetail quite nicely with the likes of per-notification redaction and private media folder.
What display technology would make this possible
Modern adhesive privacy filters use light-control films to obstruct off-axis viewing. A device-integrated solution could achieve the same concept with an electronically addressed layer—liquid crystal shutters or micro-louver structures incorporated over the OLED panel, for instance—that would permit software to change the viewing cone on command. Laptops already do this: HP’s Sure View and Lenovo’s PrivacyGuard have e‑privacy screens you can switch on and off with a key press.
Assuming Samsung goes with the e-layer, battery hit shouldn’t be that severe, though users might have to face some brightness increases in order to counteract a reduced viewing angle. Like any optical stack shift, there are concerns such as: color shift and uniformity (the intensity slider displayed in the UI can help users balance privacy vs perceived image quality).
Why an automatic privacy display on phones matters
Visual eavesdropping is still a measurable risk. A widely quoted study conducted by the Ponemon Institute showed that “visual hacking” was successful on more than 90 percent of all attempts in the office environment — clearly demonstrating how simple it is to capture sensitive information at a glance. The risk is even greater on phones in confined spaces like buses and elevators, where the screens are big, bright and inches from someone else’s sightline.
An automatic, context-aware privacy mode solves the biggest headache with physical filters: friction. That’s something that users frequently take off because it always dims the display. And the simple fact of a software-controlled system that only springs to life when there’s an actual need — and which lets you pick precisely what stays visible — could plausibly nudge daily compliance upward without losing too much usability.
The UI clues and good things to watch next
The leaked settings mention One UI 8.5 and feature multiple touchpoints across the interface, indicating this isn’t a random experiment. However, the specifics of how these systems are put into practice can be fluid. Watch for indications of:
- View-angle presets versus a continuous slider, to see how fine the optical control is.
- Per-app rules and routines support, which allows automating device mode based on location, time, or app.
- Accessibility considerations; narrower viewing angles can affect users who rely on increased font sizes or alternative color modes.
- Performance and power requirements, such as whether high brightness is needed in privacy mode, and how that affects battery life.
If Samsung follows through on what these screenshots suggest, the Galaxy S26 Ultra would be the first popular phone to include an honest-to-god e‑privacy panel that adjusts dynamically with your surroundings. It’s another logical evolution of modern smartphone privacy: on-device smarts that help secure what’s on the screen without asking you to change your behavior.
