Samsung shows off next-gen Privacy Display that could make the Galaxy S27 even better

It’s not too often anymore that we see a new smartphone do something that truly feels novel, but we’ve got to hand it to Samsung for bringing us just that with the Privacy Display on its Galaxy S26 Ultra. The software-switchable privacy filter is the sort of feature we never even realized we needed, protecting sensitive information on our screen from prying eyes. And as impressive as this initial effort is, this year at MWC in Barcelona, we’re already checking out some of the ways that Privacy Display will get even better in the future.

Privacy Display works because Samsung gave the Galaxy S26 Ultra a screen built with two distinct types of subpixels: those with narrow viewing angles, that are only visible from straight ahead; and those with wide viewing angles, that are visible from the side, as well. In normal operation, both types of subpixels are active, but when Privacy Display is engaged, the wide ones turn off, restricting who can see the screen.

With the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung gives us two main ways to use Privacy Display. We can just turn it all the way on, activating it across the entire screen, or deploy it conditionally. Here, Samsung activates the Privacy Display only when we’re in a specific app, viewing a notification, or entering our PIN/password.

Those are all totally sensible uses for Privacy Display, but if you take a moment to stop and think about it, we bet you could come up with plenty of additional ones — when else might you want to hide what’s going on on your screen? Maybe whenever you’re entering text with the on-screen keyboard? Turns out, Samsung Display is way ahead of you, and at MWC the company is already showing off some possibilities from a next-gen Privacy Display.

What’s next for Privacy Display?

Compared to the current Privacy Display, the new version under development will be more flexible, allowing selective protection of only certain regions of the screen. That’s basically the same trick the Galaxy S26 Ultra can already do with Privacy Display on your notifications, only here impacting much larger screen areas. We’re not sure exactly what’s limiting the Galaxy S26 Ultra from doing the same, but Samsung Display told us this is achieved through newer hardware and not something that can be introduced in the S26 Ultra’s existing Privacy Display through a software update.

Samsung Display is not sharing any specifics right now, but a company exec hinted that we might see this next-gen Privacy Display on the a next-gen Galaxy handset. We may not hold our breath about seeing Privacy Display already being adapted for this year’s upcoming foldables, but as far as the S27 series goes — well, with any luck, we might be getting some big Privacy Display upgrades next year!