I build iPhone apps on my own. Secure Folder is the one I made for photos and videos I don't want in the camera roll. The vault stays on the phone. You don't sign up, and the photos aren't uploaded. The app doesn't use iCloud.
I didn't want a login in front of a private photo. If the pictures lived on a server, someone could ask me to hand them over.
The first launch is a 6-digit PIN for the vault. It isn't the iPhone passcode, so that passcode won't open these photos. Face ID or Touch ID can open the vault too, if you turn that on. The switch is in the Security tab.
Auto-Lock is on by default, and it's one switch. There's no timer and no lock button. When the app leaves the screen, it locks. Coming back means the PIN, or Face ID if you turned that on.
iOS keeps a picture of your app for the app switcher. If the cover waited until the app was fully in the background, that picture could be the last photo you had open. The blur goes up as soon as the app is no longer in the foreground. The lock follows when iOS has actually moved the app to the background. You can't turn the blur off, so the app switcher doesn't keep the last photo.
People say "hide" and mean the file moved. In this app, an import puts a copy in the vault. The first time you import photos, the app asks once: remove the originals after import? That answer is saved, and you can change it later in Settings. iOS still asks you to confirm each deletion. If you confirm, the original leaves Photos. If you don't, it stays in the library and you also have the copy. Later, Delete Originals is there for items you imported and only afterwards decided to remove. Restore to Photos puts a vault item back into Photos.
I didn't want that question on every import. A prompt you see every time becomes a button you stop reading. The question shows up once and the answer sticks. iOS still confirms the deletion. That's what I shipped. The app shouldn't delete a camera-roll photo quietly, and it shouldn't talk about a move while the original is still in the library.
A lot of calculator vaults expect the PIN to be typed into the sum. I kept the PIN off that keypad. The screen does ordinary arithmetic. The gear at the top right opens the real PIN pad. Someone who picks the phone up and multiplies two numbers gets a calculator. The PIN is the next screen.
When someone asks me where to start, I still send them to Apple's Hidden album before I send them here. You hide a photo or a video, it leaves the library view and the Photos widget, and since iOS 16 the Hidden album opens with Face ID, Touch ID, or the iPhone passcode. You can also turn the album out of the list in Settings, under Apps, then Photos. If iCloud Photos is on, a photo you hide is hidden on your other devices too.
Hidden still uses the phone's lock. Someone who knows the passcode can open it, since Face ID falls back to that passcode. The hidden items are still in Photos.
Secure Folder keeps the gallery on the phone. The PIN isn't the phone passcode, so the household doesn't already know it. Videos play in the app, and folders are there if you want more than one set. Use the Hidden album when the phone passcode is enough.
The app is Secure Folder: Privacy Vault. I write about it at https://getsecurefolder.com/ and it's on the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/app/id6755857874
Top comments (0)