We all value our privacy, and while technology has allowed us to use our mobile devices to capture and store memories and moments, sometimes, we want to keep them to ourselves and away from the curious eyes of others.
In this respect, Apple has continued to surge ahead with many privacy-centric features, with a built-in feature that allows iPhone users to hide or otherwise protect their photos easily.
After all, private moments should be able to stay private. If you need to learn how to hide photos on iPhones or are just curious about the topic, let’s take you through a step-by-step process of doing so.
Create a “Hidden” Album
Designating an album as “hidden” is the easiest way to hide photos on an iPhone. The best part about this method is that it can all be done inside the iPhone’s Photos app.
Here is how it’s done:
1. Navigate to your iPhone’s Photos App
2. Open the current photo library collection and tap Select in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Move through the photo library, tapping on the photos you want to hide (they will be checked off).
4. Tap the “More” icon at the bottom right corner of your iPhone screen. It’s the three dots in the corner.
5. On the popup menu, tap “Hide” (it looks like an eye with a slash through it).
6. Confirm by tapping Hide Photos.
These actions will move the photos into a hidden album, which might give you peace of mind, but what if you wanted to access them yourself?
How to Access Hidden Album on Your iPhone
It’s very simple to access the Hidden Album if you know where to look.
- Simply go back to the Photos app.
- Select the Albums tab.
- Scroll down until you see a section called Utilities, then select Hidden.
In that section, you will find the hidden album where all of the photos you selected in the last setup steps now reside.
As you can see from the image above, the Hidden folder is locked, which means you need to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to access it.
Here’s another cool feature besides hiding the photo. When you show someone a photo on your iPhone, you can lock it to prevent them from scrolling through your entire camera roll. Pretty neat!
How to Hide the Hidden Album on iPhone
Now you know how and where to locate the hidden album you have stocked with your hidden photos.
Unfortunately, now everyone else reading this does, too. Don’t worry; Apple foresaw this paradox and created a way to hide the “Hidden” album.
The reason you were able to see the hidden album is that your current settings allow it to be viewable if it is found.
However, you can also disable the ability to view it by following these steps:
1. Navigate to the iPhone Settings app, scroll down, and tap on the Photos section.
2. Find the option for Hidden Album, then toggle that option to the off-position.
Go back to the Photos app and verify that you can no longer access the Hidden album through the Photos app under the Utilities section.
Lock Your Photos With the Notes App
To feel even more secure in terms of photo access, some users may not be satisfied with simply hiding some photos in a hidden album or even having that album hidden.
The Apple Notes App offers another protection layer that allows you to lock selected images using your iPhone password, a separate password you create, Touch ID, or Face ID.
How to Lock Private Photos Using Notes
First, let’s choose a password method to lock the notes where you’ll add the photos you want to hide.
1. On your iPhone, go to the Settings app, scroll down, and select Notes.
2. Select Password.
3. Choose how to lock your notes. You can either use your iPhone passcode or create a custom password. While you are there, enable Face ID (if your device supports it) for even faster access to your locked notes.
How to Add Photos to iPhone Notes
With this feature enabled, you can now add photos to your password-protected notes.
1. Start by opening the Photos app on your iPhone and find the photo you want to hide.
2. Tap the Share icon and select Notes.
3. Choose “New Note” to create a new note, or just hit Save at the top right.
4. Once in the Notes app, open the note containing the photo.
5. Tap the more options (three dots) at the top right, then select Lock Note.
6. Enter your password or use Touch of Face ID, then tap the lock icon at the top to lock the note.
This will lock your photos behind a password style of your choice, whether a typed-in set of characters, Touch ID, or Face ID.
What this does is move the photos into an Apple Note. However, the original photos will still exist in your photo album, hidden or not.
Since the photos have been successfully moved to the note, you should then delete all of the selected photos from your album.
That way, they are not in the photo library or a hidden album but removed from the Photos app entirely.
They will, however, remain in the Notes app and are accessible only through your selected password measure.
Bottom Line
There are some photos we love sharing with the world, while others we prefer to keep private.
Apple has made a long-standing mission of putting user privacy at the forefront of its efforts.
So it comes as no surprise that the iPhone has built-in features that will protect a user’s photos in a multitude of ways.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions.
