What the Hidden album is for

It is worth being fair about this one, because it is free, built in, and perfectly good at the thing it was designed for: keeping a handful of photos out of view when you hand someone your phone to look at holiday pictures.

On current iOS the Hidden album itself sits behind Face ID or your passcode, which is more than it used to do. For casual privacy, that is often enough.

What it is not

The photos in the Hidden album are still ordinary items in your Photos library. They are not separately encrypted, and with iCloud Photos switched on they sync to your iCloud account like everything else. Anyone who can reach your library — through a signed-in Mac, an iCloud session, or a device that is already unlocked — is not stopped by the album, because the album is a view, not a lock on the file.

It is also the single most obvious place to look. "Check the Hidden album" is common knowledge, which makes it a poor answer to the specific situation where someone is standing over you asking to see your phone.

What an encrypted vault does differently

Vaultine encrypts each file with AES-256-GCM before storing it, and splits and randomises the stored data so nothing on disk resembles the original. The key is derived from your 5x5 pattern or six-digit PIN and is never stored, so we hold no keys and cannot decrypt your files.

It also unlocks separately from the phone. Face ID opening your device does not open your vault, which matters because the two moments are usually the same moment.

When you are made to unlock it

This is where a hidden album has nothing to offer, and it is the reason vault apps exist at all.

Vaultine's Decoy Vault opens on a second code and shows a vault you stocked in advance with harmless files — an ordinary-looking unlock where you chose what is seen. The Duress Vault opens on a third code, shows an empty vault, and wipes your real vaults as it does. Both are Pro features, configured deliberately.

One vault, four platforms

The Hidden album is an Apple feature. Vaultine runs on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, so the same vault covers the Android phone and the Windows laptop as well as the iPhone.