Smartphones are undoubtedly your life support system. However, there are always privacy concerns associated with this if you are sharing your device with family or friends.
If you are not properly protected, you may expose yourself to others who may stumble upon your private app or adult content folder. Sometimes this can also be inconvenient.
Fortunately, phone manufacturers provide many ways to lock and protect your device from unwanted access. Choose from common passwords, PINs, patterns, or fingerprints as you see fit. As far as web browsers go, you get the cryptically named incognito mode, or private browsing mode.
However, incognito tabs are not as useful as they are often portrayed. Hence, if you have enabled it, we recommend that you disable them.
Here is how to disable incognito mode on Android phone and turn it off permanently. So, let’s begin.
Incognito mode – why should you use it?
While browsing the web in your preferred browser—Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox—switching to incognito mode hides your identity. This is called private browsing.
When enabled, it will hide your activity from others; therefore, no one can know what websites you have viewed on your device if they are available to your family members or friends.
Hence, if you don’t want anyone to check or view your browsing history, you should always use incognito mode while browsing. This enhances the security of your privacy as most of the time people abuse your browsing history.
But if your child is using a browser with incognito mode enabled, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for you to track activities. In such a situation, you can disable this feature on your mobile phone.
And the answer to that is yes and no, because of course you can turn it off, but there is no guarantee that it will help you keep track of your child’s online activity.
Browsers with incognito mode for private browsing
Below are some of the popular browsers that have incognito mode for safe browsing.
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Edge
- Google Chrome
- apple safari
- Mozilla Firefox
Hence, they are all considered the best browsers in terms of privacy.
What information is still visible even if you use incognito mode?
Each update comes with some limitations, as does this useful incognito mode. While it protects most of your online activities, there is still some visible information.
Below are some activities that will not be hidden even if you use incognito mode while browsing the web.
- If you go to any site, its owner will know about it. In addition, advertisers will also know about your visit.
- If you sign in to any website or platform, such as Gmail, they will also know about your activity.
- If you are browsing the site on someone else’s device or using a different network, the owner of that network may also have access to your activities.
- ISPs, search engines, etc. also have access to your browsing history.
All of the above parties can see several activities or information, including:
- Your internet protocol or IP address is used to determine your location.
- Your activity in real time.
- In addition, your identity if you are logged into any websites.
You always have to choose if you want to use incognito mode. Turning it off on an Android device is a slightly different process than on computers, as on the latter it can be turned off by changing the settings.
Having said that, the next section will discuss how to disable incognito mode on Android phone.
How to disable incognito mode on android phone?
First of all, let’s be clear that incognito mode cannot be turned off using the built-in settings on an Android device, but there are always third-party apps that can help you with this. They are:
- Incoquito
You can install the Incoquito app on your Android device and it will give you several options. Among them there is a setting with which you can prevent opening any tab in incognito mode.
You can surf anonymously and this app will keep a record of all your activities. Therefore, with this application, you can disable the incognito mode completely.
- Incognito Away
Incognito Away is another third-party app that you can use to turn off incognito mode on your Android device. It also works seamlessly on multiple browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave Browser, Iron Browser, Ecosia, Start Internet Browser, Yu Browser, Google Chrome DEV, BETA and Canary, among others.
Incognito Away helps protect your kids from unwanted or harmful content.
Note. These two (and other similar) third party apps are not free. However, they are reasonably priced.
How to disable incognito mode on android phone?
Apart from third-party apps, there are other ways to disable incognito mode on Android phone. This:
- Use Google Family Link (parental controls)
There are a number of ways you can parental control or monitor the content your child may be searching for or watching online, such as Google Family Link and Digital Wellbeing. And this is how you can easily remove incognito mode from your child’s phone browser. To do this, follow these steps:
- Before you start this process, make sure your child’s age meets the age requirements, which may vary.
- You can then link your Google account to your child’s account.
- You can now use Family Link to set up parental controls on your child’s phone.
Once you do this, Google will automatically disable incognito mode. There are other benefits offered by Google Family Link such as screen time monitoring, web filtering, device location tracking, etc.
- Use a browser that does not support incognito
Well, this is the best trick that can be used to disable incognito mode on android phone. You can always try using a browser that does not support this feature. Such a browser may not have a better feature than a browser that supports incognito mode.
But when it comes to protecting your child, it can be worth it. All you have to do is open the Google Play Store and search for Browser without incognito mode. Then install the one you like from several options and check if the issue is resolved.
How to disable incognito mode on Android phone – Firefox?
If you’re using Firefox on a mobile device, don’t worry; disabling incognito mode in Firefox is also a simple process. Just follow these steps:
- Click on the number box in the top right corner of your Firefox screen.
- In the upper right corner of the menu that opens on the screen, there will be three dots.
- Click “Close All Tabs”from the options on the screen.
- All your tabs will be closed.
- Tap the Mask icon to exit private mode on the Firefox screen.
Hence, incognito mode will be disabled on your mobile.
How to disable incognito mode on Android phone – Microsoft Edge?
If you’re using incognito mode in Microsoft Edge on your mobile phone and want to turn it off, follow these steps.
- Click on the number field in the lower right corner of the Edge screen.
- Click “Close All Tabs”from the on-screen options at the bottom left corner of the screen.
Hence, it’s done.
How to disable incognito mode on Android phone – Chrome?
If you’re using Incognito Mode in Chrome Browser and want to turn it off, follow these steps:
- Open Google Chrome on your device.
- In the upper right corner, click on the tab switcher icon.
- On the right you will find open windows in incognito mode.
- In the upper right corner of the incognito tabs, click Close (X).
So, that is all about how to disable incognito mode on Android phone.
Conclusion
Incognito mode is the most secure way to protect your browsing activity, but in some exceptional cases you may want to disable it. Speaking of PCs and computers, disabling incognito mode is very easy. But when it comes to Android devices, this can be a difficult or tedious process.
However, we hope that with the help of the above article, this issue has been resolved for you.
But if your child is aware of this, they may try to use a different browser where you won’t be able to track their activity. So this might not be the best solution.