Smartphones are undoubtedly your life support system. However, there are always privacy issues associated with these if you happen to share your device with family or friends.
If not properly secured, you can expose yourself to others who might stumble into your private app or folder having adult content. This can be not very comfortable at times as well.
Fortunately, phone manufacturers provide many ways to lock and secure your device from unwanted access. Pick one among a regular password, PIN, pattern, or fingerprint scan as you wish. Coming to the web browsers, you get the mysteriously named Incognito mode or private browsing mode.
However, the Incognito tabs are not as useful as they’re often portrayed. Hence, if you’ve enabled it, we recommend turning them off.
Here’s how to turn off Incognito mode on Android phone and permanently disable it. So, let’s start.
Incognito Mode – Why Would You Want To Use It?
While surfing online on your preferred browser – Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox, switching to the Incognito mode hides your identity. This is called private browsing.
When turned on, it’ll hide your activity from others; hence, no one can know which websites you were surfing on your device if that’s shared among your family members or friends.
Hence, if you don’t want anyone to check or look up your browsing history, you’d always use Incognito mode while browsing. This adds up a little security in maintaining your privacy, as most of the time, people misuse your browsing history.
But in case your child is using the browser with the Incognito mode on, it’ll be difficult, if not impossible, for you to keep track of the activities. In such a situation, you might want to disable this feature from your mobile.
And the answer to this is both yes and no, because, of course, you can disable this, but there is no guarantee that this will help you keep track of your child’s online activities.
Browsers With Incognito Mode For Private Browsing
Following 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, all these are considered the best browsers from a privacy point of view.
What Information Is Still Visible Even If You Use The Incognito Mode?
Every update has some limitations, and so does this otherwise useful Incognito mode. Although it safeguards most of your browsing activities, there is still some visible information.
Following are some activities that won’t be hidden even if you’re using the Incognito mode while browsing online.
- If you visit any website, its owner will know about this. Besides, the advertisers will also know about your visit.
- If you sign in to any website or platform, such as Gmail, it’ll also know about your activity.
- If you’re browsing on someone else’s device or using a different network, the owner of that network can also have access to your activity.
- Internet providers, search engines, etc., also access your browsing history.
All of the above parties can see several activities or information, which include:
- Your Internet Protocol or IP address is used for identifying your location.
- Your real-time activity.
- Also, your identity if you have signed in to any websites.
It should always be your choice whether you want to use the Incognito mode. Disabling it on your Android device is a slightly different process than on computers, as in the latter, it can be disabled with the help of a change in settings.
Having said that, the following section will discuss how to turn off Incognito mode on an Android phone.
How To Turn Off Incognito Mode On An Android Phone?
Before anything else, let’s make it clear that Incognito mode cannot be disabled with the help of in-built settings on an Android device but there are always some third-party apps that can help you in this. They are:
- Incoquito
You can install the Incoquito app on your Android device and it’ll provide you with several options. Among them, there is a setting from which you can prevent any tab from opening in Incognito mode.
You can surf anonymously, and this application will keep a record of all of your activities. Therefore, with the help of this application, you can disable the Incognito mode completely.
- Incognito Away
Incognito Away is another third-party application with the help of which you can disable the Incognito mode on your Android device. It also works smoothly on several 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 children from unwanted or harmful materials.
Note: These two (and other similar) third-party apps aren’t free. However, they are reasonably priced.
How To Disable Incognito Mode On An Android Phone?
Except for the third-party applications, there are other ways to disable the Incognito mode on an Android phone. These are:
- Use Google Family Link (Parental Control)
There are several ways through which you can have parental control or keep an eye on the content your child can search or watch online, such as Google Family Link and Digital Wellbeing. And this is how you can easily remove the Incognito mode from the browser of your child’s phone. For this, follow these steps:
- Before starting this process, make sure that the age requirement of your child is met, which might vary.
- Then, you can link your Google account with your child’s account.
- You can now use the Family Link to set up parental control on your child’s phone.
Once you’ve done this, Google will automatically disable the Incognito mode. There are other benefits as well that are offered by Google’s Family Link, such as screen time monitoring, web filtering, device location tracking, etc.
- Use A Browser That Doesn’t Support Incognito
Well, this is the ultimate trick that can be used to turn off Incognito mode on an Android phone. You can always try using a browser that doesn’t support this feature. Such a browser might not have the best feature like the browser that supports Incognito mode.
But when it comes to protecting your child, it might be worth it. All you need to do is, open the Google Play Store and search for Browser without Incognito mode. Then, install the one you like among the several options and check if the issue is resolved.
How To Turn Off Incognito Mode On Android Phone – Firefox?
If you are using Firefox on mobile, don’t worry; turning off Incognito mode on Firefox is also an easy process. Just follow these steps:
- Tap on the number box in the top-right corner of the Firefox screen.
- There will be three dots on the top-right corner of the menu that opens on the screen.
- Click on Close All Tabs from the options on the screen.
- All your tabs will be closed.
- Tap the Mask icon to come out of the private mode on the Firefox screen.
Hence, Incognito Mode will be turned off on your mobile.
How To Turn Off Incognito Mode On Android Phone – Microsoft Edge?
If you use the Incognito mode in Microsoft Edge on your mobile and want to turn it off, follow these steps.
- Tap on the number box on the bottom-right corner of the Edge screen.
- Tap on the Close All Tabs from the options on the screen in the lower-left corner of the screen.
Hence, it’s done.
How To Turn Off Incognito Mode On Android Phone – Chrome?
If you use the Incognito mode in the Chrome browser and want to turn it off, follow these steps.
- Open Google Chrome on your device.
- At the top right corner, tap on the Switch tabs icon.
- On the right, you’ll find your opened Incognito windows.
- At the top right of your Incognito tabs, tap Close (X).
So, this was all about how to turn off Incognito mode on an Android phone.
Conclusion
Incognito mode is the safest means to protect your browser activity, but in some exceptional cases, you might want to disable this. Talking about PCs and computers, turning off Incognito mode is easy. But when it comes to Android devices, this can be a difficult or tedious process.
However, with the help of the above article, we hope this issue must have been resolved for you.
But if your child is aware of this, they might try to use another browser where you cannot keep track of his activity. So, this might not be the best solution.
