Privacy Display was originally planned for the Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung has introduced two groundbreaking display technologies over the past two years. The first was the anti-reflective display that debuted with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The second is Privacy Display, which arrived this week with the Galaxy S26 Ultra. However, Privacy Display was originally planned to debut last year.

Samsung MX Chief Operating Officer Won-Joon Choi revealed that the Privacy Display feature was initially intended for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The concept of designing a screen that prevents side-angle snooping was proposed by a Samsung engineer three to four years ago. Samsung MX then began developing the project in collaboration with Samsung Display, which is the display division of Samsung Electronics.

The company encountered a few technical challenges, which delayed the launch of Privacy Display. As a result, the feature ultimately debuted with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

It is a hardware feature present in Samsung Display's Flex Magic Pixel OLED panel, and it hides content on the screen from side angles so that people beside you can't snoop on your phone. You can read about it in detail by clicking here.

Choi told Bloomberg, “Our goal was to have this, to be honest with you, on the S25 Ultra. We were almost there. But we had to kind of solve a couple of the last challenges. So we took another year to resolve those. It has been quite a journey.”

The executive also revealed that Samsung plans to bring Privacy Display to more affordable phones in the future once the technology becomes more mature. The company is also researching ways to adapt the feature for foldable devices in the Galaxy Z series.