Seakret
The short answer
You can hide photos on Android in three main ways:
- Your phone’s built-in locked folder. Quick to use, but it usually relies on your phone’s own lock.
- Hiding them from the gallery. This only moves photos out of sight. They stay ordinary files.
- An encrypted vault app. The photos are scrambled with a key only you control.
If you only want a photo out of the way, any of them works. If a photo would cause real trouble in someone else’s hands, use encryption.
Way 1: your phone’s built-in locked folder
Many phones include one. Google Photos has a Locked Folder (look under Library, then Utilities), and some phone makers add a separate protected space of their own. Features differ between phones and Android versions, so check your own settings.
Good: already installed and quick to use.
Watch out for:
- Some are unlocked with the same fingerprint or PIN as your phone. Anyone who knows your phone PIN can then open them. Check which lock yours uses.
- Photos in some locked folders are not backed up to the cloud by default, so they can be lost if you lose the phone or reset it. Look at what your phone does with them.
Way 2: hide them from the gallery
Most gallery apps let you hide an album. You can also put photos in a folder that contains an empty file named .nomedia, which tells gallery apps not to show it.
Both only change what the gallery displays. The photos are still normal, unencrypted files. Anyone who opens a file manager, or who copies the files off your phone, can see them. That makes this a way to keep something out of a casual glance, not a way to protect it.
Way 3: an encrypted vault app
A vault app encrypts each photo before it is stored. Without the key, a copy of the file is just unreadable data, so it protects you even if someone gets past your phone’s lock or copies the files.
With Seakret it works like this:
- Install Seakret from Google Play and create your first vault with a pattern of at least six dots, or a passphrase.
- Write down your 24-word recovery phrase. It is your way back in if you forget (how it works).
- Add your photos and videos. Choose them from your gallery, or take a photo or record a video straight into the vault so it never reaches your camera roll.
- Delete the originals yourself. Seakret only reads what you choose and leaves your originals alone. Remove them from your gallery, then empty its trash.
- Lock it. Next time you open Seakret, you draw your pattern.
Seakret has no account and no server of its own, and everything, including file names and albums, is encrypted on your phone. Read how on the security page.
Which way should you choose?
| What you want | Best fit |
|---|---|
| Keep a photo out of the main gallery for a casual reason | Hide it in the gallery, or use your phone’s locked folder |
| Stop someone who knows your phone PIN from seeing it | A vault with its own lock (a pattern or passphrase that is not your phone PIN) |
| Protect photos if the phone is lost, copied or inspected | An encrypted vault |
| Keep different sets of photos apart | A vault app with more than one vault, each with its own lock (choosing the lock) |
Do not forget the copies
Hiding the photo is only half the job. The same picture may already exist somewhere else:
- Your camera roll or Google Photos, if automatic backup was on when you took it.
- Chat apps, which often save received pictures to your gallery.
- Any other cloud backup you have enabled for your photos.
After adding photos to a vault, check those places and delete the extra copies. A private photo that is still in your backup is not private.
Can someone find photos you have hidden?
If you only hid them in the gallery, yes: a file manager will show them. If they are in a locked folder, it depends on what protects it. If they are in an encrypted vault, they cannot be opened without your pattern or passphrase, and, if you forget both, without your recovery phrase. For the full comparison, see hidden album or encrypted vault, and for choosing an app, how to choose a photo vault app.