As there is rise in use of Internet and development in computers in different vicinity of life. Safety of data becomes most important factor in information technology and communication. In today's information era information hiding becomes very much important as people transmit the information as innocent as credit card to online stores and as dangerous as terrorist plot to hijackers. The art of information hiding receive attention of the researchers. This paper provides a review of two methods visual cryptography and steganography for secure communication via a common communication channel.