Is the iPhone Hidden album secure?
The Hidden album is free, built in, and locked by Face ID, which makes it good protection against a glance. It is not encryption you control. Anyone with your passcode or your Apple Account can open it.
Where the Hidden album is better: it is free, already on your iPhone, opens with Face ID, and syncs across your Apple devices. Oorvel costs money, never uses Face ID, and keeps everything on one phone.
| Row | Oorvel | Hidden album |
|---|---|---|
| Unlock | 6-word passphrase (77.5 bits) | Face ID, Touch ID, or your iPhone passcode |
| Encryption | XChaCha20-Poly1305 | iPhone data protection, the same as all your photos |
| Key derivation | Argon2id, 256 MiB per guess | Tied to your device passcode |
| Cloud | None. No server exists. | Syncs with iCloud Photos when it is on |
| Account | None | Your Apple Account |
| Analytics and tracking | None. Privacy label: Data Not Collected | Governed by Apple's privacy policy |
| Open source | Yes, GPL-3.0 | No |
| Price | $14.99, once | Free, built into iOS |
| Backup and new phone | Sealed export, phone-to-phone transfer, restore proof | iCloud Photos or your device backup |
| Decoy vault | Yes | No |
Unlock: your passcode against a separate secret
The Hidden album opens with Face ID or Touch ID, and falls back to your iPhone passcode. That is convenient, and it means the album is exactly as private as your passcode. If someone has watched you unlock your phone, they can open it.
Oorvel’s vault opens with six words that are not your passcode, not your Apple Account password, and not stored anywhere but your memory.
Encryption: whose keys
Everything on an iPhone is encrypted at rest, and hidden photos are no exception. But the keys are tied to your passcode, and in iCloud they are held by Apple unless you turn on Advanced Data Protection.
Oorvel’s keys come from your six words through Argon2id. They are never stored and never leave the phone.
Cloud
With iCloud Photos on, hidden photos sync to all your devices and to iCloud. That protects against a lost phone. It also means your Apple Account is a way in.
Oorvel has no network permission. The only copies are the ones on your phone and any sealed export you make.
How to set it up properly
If the Hidden album is enough for you, set it up well. Our guide on how to hide photos on iPhone covers the Settings path and the switch that keeps the lock on.
What Hidden album gets right
- It costs nothing and is already on every iPhone.
- It is locked by default, and the lock uses Face ID or Touch ID, which is fast and hard to shoulder-surf.
- Hidden photos stay out of Memories, featured photos and the Photos widget, which is the most common way private photos surface by accident.
- With Advanced Data Protection on, its iCloud copies are end-to-end encrypted.
- It syncs across your Apple devices, so the same photos stay hidden everywhere.
Which one is for you
Choose the Hidden album for photos you don’t want to surface by accident, when nobody else knows your passcode.
Choose Oorvel when the person you are protecting photos from might know your passcode, or might have your Apple Account.
Pick neither if
If you share your phone's passcode with anyone, neither a hidden album nor a vault on a shared phone fixes the real problem. Change the passcode first.
Frequently asked
- Is the Hidden album on iPhone private?
- It is private from casual browsing. It opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode, so anyone who knows your passcode can open it, and anyone with your Apple Account can see it in iCloud Photos.
- Are hidden photos encrypted in iCloud?
- Only end-to-end, meaning only you can read them, if Advanced Data Protection is on. With standard data protection, Apple holds the encryption keys for Photos.
- Can I lock the Hidden album with a different password?
- No. It uses the same Face ID, Touch ID and passcode as your iPhone. For a separate secret, you need a vault app.