Over the past few years, every time I have visited my nearby electronics gear store, the friendly seller has recommended a privacy screen protector to me. Compared to the usual transparent screen guard, the privacy shield makes your screen appear dark when seen from an angle, blocking the view of anyone peeping from the sides. Samsung could ship this feature as a standard perk on the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra, without requiring users to apply any special screen guard.

The big picture

The folks over at Android Authority have spotted the mention of a feature called Private Display (or Privacy Display) in the code of Samsung’s One UI software. The strings in the code describe the feature as follows:

Automatically use Private display when you use sensitive apps and when you’re in crowded places.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung’s display division recently trademarked the tech under the name “Flex Magic Pixel.” According to a Korean news outlet, this feature will first appear on Samsung’s next flagship, which is due for arrival early next year.

Samsung first detailed this tech back in 2024. “A technology that adjusts the viewing angle of the screen so that it is not visible to the person next to it and, when combined with the proper AI technology, can be used to enhance the security of smart devices,” explains the company.

AI plays a key role

As per reports, the display-focused privacy tech will rely on AI to detect when users are performing a sensitive task within an app. Based on the input, the system will automatically make adjustments to the light output from the OLED pixels so that a person looking at the screen from an angle won’t be able to make out what’s happening on the smartphone’s display.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The biggest benefit of the Flex Magic Pixel tech is that users don’t have to spend extra cash on a privacy screen guard. Aside from the added costs, these protective layers also cut down on the brightness and make the on-screen content look dull.

Thanks to the new display tech on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the user won’t have to make any quality compromises in order to privately handle their business. We haven’t seen such a system appear on a mainstream smartphone yet, so it would be pretty interesting to see it unfold in real life.