Apps to hide photos: how to choose a private photo vault

The short answer

Start with the free option already on your phone: the Hidden album on iPhone, Locked Folder in Google Photos, or Secure Folder on Samsung Galaxy phones. They are enough when the goal is to keep photos out of ordinary browsing and nobody else knows your passcode. Choose a separate app when you need a second secret, for example because someone knows your passcode or you often lend your unlocked phone. Then judge the app on facts rather than its icon: does it encrypt the files, what unlocks it, what happens if you forget that secret or lose the phone, what data it collects, and what the free version really includes. Test it with photos that do not matter before moving anything important.

Try the built-in options first

Every recent phone has a way to hide photos without installing anything.

• iPhone and iPad: touch and hold a photo, tap Hide. The Hidden album is locked with Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode since iOS 16, and since iOS 18 you can also require Face ID for the whole Photos app. Hiding photos on iPhone gives the paths for each iOS version.
• Android with Google Photos: move items to Locked Folder, opened with the screen lock, with optional backup to your Google Account. The Locked Folder guide explains the backup choice that decides whether photos survive a lost phone.
• Samsung Galaxy: Secure Folder is a separate space that can use its own lock type.
• Android 15 and later: private space keeps apps in a separate area with its own lock.

These options cost nothing, are maintained by the system’s maker and need no extra permissions. Their shared limit is that most rely on the phone’s own passcode or biometrics.

Three kinds of apps that hide photos

Apps in the stores that promise to hide photos fall into three broad families, and many mix them.

• App lockers put a PIN or pattern screen in front of other apps, such as the gallery. The photos stay where they were; only the way in changes.
• Vault apps copy photos into their own storage. Some encrypt those copies; others simply keep ordinary image files in a folder that the gallery does not scan.
• Disguised apps look like something else, most often a calculator, and open the vault when you type a code. The disguise is about discretion; it says nothing about how the files are stored.

The family tells you what kind of protection to expect. A locker fails as soon as someone gets past its screen or reads the storage another way; an encrypted vault keeps files unreadable without its key, even when copied.

Criterion 1: real encryption or just a lock screen

Look for a precise description in the app’s documentation, support pages or store listing: the algorithm and mode (for example AES-256-GCM), whether each file has its own key, and how the key is derived from your PIN or pattern. Vague phrases such as military-grade encryption, without any of those details, are not evidence.

A few clues help:

• the app says that files are encrypted on the device, not just that the app is locked;
• it explains what an email or account reset can and cannot recover;
• it states what has and has not been independently reviewed.

How photo vault encryption works explains these terms with a worked example, including what encryption cannot protect once a photo is on screen.

Criterion 2: what unlocks the vault, and who can reset it

The unlock secret decides who can get in.

• If the app opens with the phone’s passcode or biometrics only, it protects against the same people as the built-in options, no more.
• A separate PIN, password or pattern adds a second secret. Choose one that is not your phone passcode and that nobody has seen you enter.
• Biometric unlock is convenient, but whoever can hold the phone up to your face or finger can use it.

Then look at the forgotten-secret path. A reset by email or by the developer’s support means that someone other than you, the provider or whoever controls your email, can restore access. A recovery phrase or key that only you hold avoids that, but if you lose it, nobody can help. Neither is wrong; know which one you are choosing.

Criterion 3: backup, new phones and uninstalling

Ask three questions before moving your only copy of a photo into any app.

1. What happens if I uninstall the app or reset the phone? Many vaults store everything in the app’s own space, which the system deletes with the app.
2. Is there a backup, where does it go, and is it encrypted before it leaves the phone?
3. Can I move the vault to a new phone, including from iPhone to Android or the reverse?

The answers vary widely and change between versions. Read the app’s current help pages rather than reviews, and test a restore yourself. Until you have, keep an independent copy of irreplaceable photos and follow the checks to do before deleting originals.

Criterion 4: permissions and privacy labels

A photo vault needs to read the photos you choose to import; it does not need your contacts or your location to do that.

• On the App Store, scroll the app’s page to App Privacy. On Google Play, open the listing and tap Data safety. Both describe the data the developer says it collects and how it is used. Apple and Google both state that these summaries are provided by the developer, so treat them as declarations, not audits.
• On iPhone, Settings, then Privacy and Security, then App Privacy Report shows which data and sensors apps have actually accessed, once you turn it on.
• When an app asks for photo access, iOS and Android (since Android 14) let you grant access to selected photos only. You can choose that for a first test.

Advertising, analytics and an account requirement are not automatically bad, but they mean that data about your use leaves the phone. Compare them with what the app gives you.

Disguises, decoys and break-in alerts

Many vault apps market extra features. Here is what they actually do.

• Calculator or alternate icons make the app less obvious on the home screen. The app still appears under its real name in Settings, storage lists and your store purchase history.
• Decoy or secondary vaults open a different set of photos with another code. They help in casual situations, but their value depends on how believable the decoy content is.
• Break-in alerts often take a photo with the front camera after wrong attempts. That means photographing another person without their knowledge; consider whether that is acceptable to you and where you live, and remember that the alert does not stop anyone.

None of these replaces encryption and a strong secret. Kofrix offers alternate app icons, and each pattern opens its own vault without the app ever showing how many exist; it does not offer a duress code or intruder photos.

Free, subscription or one-time purchase

Most vault apps are free to install and limit something: the number of photos, videos, vaults, or features such as backup. Before importing, check:

• the exact limits of the free version;
• whether the subscription renews automatically, and how to cancel it in the App Store or Google Play;
• whether you can still open and export your photos if you stop paying.

Prices and plans change, so read them in the store listing on the day you install. For reference, Kofrix starts free with up to 100 photos and 10 videos per vault and no limit on the number of vaults; Kofrix Pro removes the limits with weekly, yearly or lifetime plans.

Test an app before trusting it

Spend ten minutes with photos that do not matter before moving anything private.

1. Install the app and grant access to selected photos only.
2. Import three or four test photos and one short video.
3. Lock the app, close it completely, reopen it and check that the photos open at full size and that the video plays with sound.
4. Export one test photo and check that it opens outside the app.
5. Check whether the originals are still in your gallery: most vaults copy rather than move, so you must delete originals yourself and then empty Recently Deleted or the trash.
6. Try the forgotten-secret path if the app offers one, and note what it requires.
7. Read what happens on uninstall. If you can, test a restore on a spare device.

Only then move real photos, a few at a time, and keep the originals until you are confident.

Warning signs

• No explanation of how files are stored, only a lock screen and marketing words.
• Access to contacts, location or the microphone without a clear reason.
• A password reset that needs nothing but an email, with no explanation of what the provider can see.
• Promises that the app is unhackable, hacker-proof or 100 % secure.
• No support contact, privacy policy or recent update.
• Reviews that describe photos lost after an update, a reinstall or a subscription ending.

One warning sign is not proof of a bad app; several together are a reason to look elsewhere.

Built-in option or encrypted vault: which one fits?

Stay with the built-in option when your goal is to keep photos out of the gallery, memories and widgets, nobody else knows your passcode, and you want the photos backed up with the rest of your library.

Choose an encrypted vault with its own secret when someone may know your passcode, when you hand your unlocked phone to others, or when certain documents should stay unreadable even then. Kofrix is built for that case: each imported photo is encrypted with AES-256-GCM and its own key, the vault opens with a pattern that is separate from the phone’s lock, and a nine-word recovery phrase is shown once during setup. Detection of sensitive photos runs on the phone to help you find what to move, and on iPhone the vault can be backed up to iCloud; Android has no backup yet, and there is no sync or transfer between iPhone and Android. If that matches your need, see the Kofrix download page, and keep the recovery phrase somewhere safe.