How to Keep Spying Eyes at Bay With the BlackBerry Privacy Shade App

It’s not just annoying when people are looking over your shoulder when you’re using your phone – it’s also a security risk. You never know if the person next to you is trying to catch you entering your password into one of your accounts or take a look at your private messages. Along with this month’s app upgrades to the BlackBerry Hub+ Suite, we’ve also introduced a new app called Privacy Shade. With the app – available for any BlackBerry powered by Android running Android 5.0 or higher  – you can block parts of your display so that other people can’t see it, allowing you to read your personal content at any time without worrying about people spying on you. Here’s how to use Privacy Shade to view your phone in peace. App Features When the app is enabled, you have a few options to help you control what can be viewed on the display. View Size To give you better control over what can be seen on your display, the Privacy Shade app lets you look at your screen in two ways: rectangle view or circle view. By tapping the View Area icon, you can switch between the two, depending on which makes it easier to see whatever you’re looking at. I find the rectangle view  really useful to view my messages, emails, and any other text document. The circle view  is great for navigating through your device because you can easily drag the circle over the display to select the apps you want to open. Transparency  You also have the power to control how dark or light the blocked display is with the Transparency setting . Oftentimes when I have the blocked display very opaque, I find it difficult to access other apps. By increasing the transparency, I can obscure certain parts of the display, but still find what I need on the screen. Bonus Tip!: If you increase the transparency to 100%, the app can also double as a brightness filter to take the strain off your eyes at night. View Area   Oftentimes when I set my phone down on a table, I leave the screen facing up so I can easily see my notifications, which unfortunately makes it easy for other people to look at them too. With the View Area options ( and ), you can switch from blocking only a portion of your screen to blocking the entire screen to make it hard for those snoopers to see what’s on your device. Quick Access Privacy Shade can be accessed easily in any of four ways: BlackBerry Privacy Shade can be assigned a Swipe Shortcut if you own a BlackBerry Android device (PRIV, DTEK 50/60) If you own a BlackBerry DTEK 50/60, you can assign BlackBerry Privacy Shade to your Convenience Key BlackBerry Privacy Shade can also be enabled through an optional dedicated notification in the notification tray on any Android device. To get the app, search search BlackBerry Privacy Shade on the Google Play Store, or get it here.

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I love seeing new productivity and security apps from BlackBerry. One such app is the recently released BlackBerry Privacy Shade app. This Android app is simple in concept yet extremely practical in use.



I love seeing new productivity and security apps from BlackBerry. As BlackBerry takes on a pivot to software and services, it's sometimes hard to connect the dots as to what that means for general consumers. If you look closely, however, you'll see ample signs of the quiet innovations in software that users like you and I will get to enjoy.


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