
It has a feature called Personal Vault that locks your files using identity verification. Some cloud apps also offer secure folders, like Microsoft OneDrive. Since they require a passcode, the files you save in them can only be accessed with the right credentials. These apps are quite versatile and can lock many types of files, like photos and videos, documents, audio files, and notes. This is where many apps come into play, like MaxVault, Keepsafe, and Folder Lock. This is why they don’t offer much in the way of adding secondary layers of security for your individual files. Apps to Lock Files, Photos, and MusicĪpple considers iPhones to be personal devices. If you have iOS 16, they can only be accessed with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID. It does include an option to hide certain photos from the main library in a "Hidden" folder which can be literally hidden in the Photos app, but even so, the album can still be seen when the image picker is used in third-party apps, so it's not completely invisible from prying eyes.These photos won’t appear in your library, in other albums, or the Photos widget. Google touts its photo and video backup service as "a safe home for life's memories," thanks to the "world-class security" and encryption it uses "to protect the photos that you back up or share."ĭespite those safeguards, last year Google was forced to contact some 100,000 users to inform them that some of their private videos backed up on its servers had been accidentally sent to strangers due to a "technical issue."Īpple still doesn't offer an equivalent feature is its native Photos app for iOS. Importantly, at least as it currently works on Pixel Phones, any cloud backups of items placed in the Locked Folder are automatically deleted from Google's servers. Google says the feature is coming to iOS "early next year." Media saved in the folder remains hidden, meaning the sensitive photos don't show up as users scroll through their Google Photos or any other apps on their device.

Google Photos users on iPhone and iPad will soon be able to lock their most sensitive images in a special passcode-protected folder, thanks to a new feature coming to the iOS app (via The Verge).Ĭurrently exclusive to Pixel phones, the privacy-oriented Locked Folder feature allows users to save photos and videos in the app within a separate space that requires a passcode or fingerprint to access.
