Most of us do have a photo which is private and too sensitive to show to others. Do you also have it? And it becomes problematic especially when your phone is usually used by your siblings and your friends, there are two options that you can adapt to protect your privacy which is either to delete your private photos or to find a way to hide them. Hiding the photos would be a good option because you would not want to delete them as well, right? So, you have landed at the right article. We’ll detail how to hide your personal images on your iPhone below and even suggest a few apps for some added security. Here, we will be discussing the different ways you can use in order to hide photos and videos in your iPhone.
How to Hide Photos/Videos in Your iPhone/iPad?
Below are the methods that should be followed in order to hide the media on your iPhone. Follow the methods mentioned below to achieve the privacy of your photos and videos.
Method 1: Hide Them in Your Photo Album
This feature has been made available since iOS 8. With the updates of iOS, there have been some major improvements in this feature; it provides users with the option to select and hide multiple photos. This feature hides photos and videos in the Photos app. However, doing so will only hide them from your Moments, Years, and Collections view, as well any albums they appear in, but will keep the photos and/or videos available in a new “Hidden” album.
Follow the steps below to hide your photos in photo app:
Step 1: You should first open up the Photos app.
Step 2: Next, tap Select which is at the upper right corner of your screen and choose which photo or photos you’d like to hide. You can also do this for each photo manually when you are looking at a preview of a single photo or select multiple files at a time.
Step 3: Now, you need to tap the Share icon “
” in the bottom left corner. On the bottom of the resulting menu, you need to scroll left to right to find the option “Hide” then press the Hide button, which looks like two rectangles overlapping slightly with a line through them as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 4: Finally, a pop-up option will appear on your screen, tap on “Hide Photo” in order to confirm your decision. Hidden photos will be placed in a new Album folder named Hidden.
However, the “Hidden” album can be accessed by anyone who has access to your phone. Imagine that you opened the lock on your iPhone and gave it to your friend who wants to call somebody. But if that person has the intention to breach your privacy then he can have a look at your hidden photos by clicking on the “Hidden album” without any difficulties. So, it is quite not secured. If you do not want others to find out your hidden photos and videos so easily and want to truly hide them in a secure way by protecting them with Touch ID or password, it is better for you to follow the next methods discussed below.
Method 2: Use Notes App
As stated earlier hiding photos in photos app is quite unsecured. But using the app “Notes”, you can protect your photos & videos with your Touch ID or passcode. To save photos follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Go to the Photos app in your iPhone.
Step 2: Next, tap Select which is at the upper right corner of your screen and choose the media (photos & videos) you’d like to hide.
Step 3: Then tap on the share icon “” then select “Add to Notes” from the first row of activities. You can add the media to an existing note or create a new one. If it’s a Live Photo, it will lose its Live Photo abilities when added to a note, so keep that in mind. Now, Hit “Save” to finish.
Step 4: Now, once you have saved the private media in Notes, in the Photos app, you can delete all those media so that others cannot see them and then you need to empty the trash as well— to get rid of all of the photos as even when deleted once they are saved in “Recently Deleted” folder so delete them from there as well.
Step 5: Next, you should open up the Notes app, swipe left on the note/s to show the options (or use the share sheet when in the note), then hit the lock icon to keep it from prying eyes.
Step 6: If you are using the lock feature for the first time, you’ll need to create a password. If it’s not, you’ll need to enter the password you already made for Notes. You can also opt to use Touch ID or Face ID to lock and unlock notes according to your device.
Step 7: After that’s done, actually lock the note by tapping on “Lock Now” at the bottom of the folder or by hitting the lock icon up top in the note itself.
Now, your media is safe and secured and only you can access it with the Touch ID/Face ID or password you just created.
Media dimensions will be the same and so will be the quality of your photos and videos but one disadvantage of this method is that you can’t keep Live Photos, so make sure that you pick the best thumbnail for the image before sharing to Notes. Also, you cannot add photos to a locked note from Photos. Instead, you’ll import them in from the note directly, if you’d rather keep all your secret photos in one note rather then many different ones.
Method 2 : Use Vault Apps
There are other variety of third party apps available in app store which helps you to hide the media you want to hide. TouchyNotes , Folder Lock , Secure Gallery & Password Vault , Keeply , Private Photo Vault , Calculator Vault etc. are all good options you can start testing out today. I personally use Calculator Vault in my iPhone. You can also download CalculatorVault: Lock Gallery Photos/Videos mobile application today and hide your stuff secretly. By installing the Calculator Vault app, you can hide/lock your pictures, videos, applications and your credentials. You can download the best locker app absolutely free and safeguard your gallery.
Being known as one of the top vault apps for photos and videos, through Calculator Vault the app gives the person an illusion of using the calculator but actually, it’s the locker view that gives an impression of the calculator. All your private photos and secret videos are behind the calculator and will be in the encrypted form. Here is the screenshot of Calculator Vault.
How to Hide Audio file from Voice Memos in iPhone/iPad?
You can also hide audio files from your “Voice Memos” into notes. Follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Go to “Voice Memos” on your phone.
Step 2: Click on the audio file you want to hide. You will see the options as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 3: Click on the menu icon (three horizontal dots) . After that click on Share option.
Step 4: Then select “Add to Notes” from the first row of activities. You can add the media to an existing note or create a new one. Now, you can Hit “Save” to finish.
Now, once you have saved audios in Notes, in the Voice Memos app, you can delete all those media so that others cannot see them.
Step 5: Next, you should open up the Notes app, swipe left on the note/s to show the options (or use the share sheet when in the note), then hit the lock icon to keep it from prying eyes.
Step 6: If you are using the lock feature for the first time, you’ll need to create a password. If it’s not, you’ll need to enter the password you already made for Notes. You can also opt to use Touch ID or Face ID to lock and unlock notes according to your device.
Step 7: After that’s done, actually lock the note by tapping on “Lock Now” at the bottom of the folder or by hitting the lock icon up top in the note itself.
Therefore, using the methods we have discussed above, you will be able to hide your private media be it photos, videos or audios secretly and only you will be able to access it. Enjoy the privacy of your photos , videos and documents in your iPhone or iPad and worry less about the breach of your privacy.
