You can hide images from the Camera Roll in iOS’ native Photos app to prevent them from appearing in your image list, but hidden images are quickly discovered by prying eyes when someone holding your iPhone opens the “Hidden” album in the Photos app.
If you wish Apple took better care of your Hidden images, then you might enjoy a new free jailbreak tweak called HiddenAlbumLock by iOS developer smokin1337. Just as the name implies, this tweak locks the Hidden album and requires authentication to unlock it for viewing.
If you’re not already familiar with this Easter-egg feature in the Photos app, then follow along below:
You can already hide any image from your Camera Roll by selecting it from the image viewer in the Photos app, tapping on the Share button, and then tapping on the Hide button:
But here’s where Apple seems to have got lazy; anyone is now able to pick up your iPhone, launch the Photos app, open the Hidden album, and see what you’ve tucked away. Silly right…?
With HiddenAlbumLock installed, we can try opening the Hidden album, but we can’t see the images contained within without authenticating ourselves, like so:
HiddenAlbumLock is a nifty idea because it makes iOS confirm that we are who we’re supposed to be before displaying the contents of our Hidden album. This is particularly useful for when you hand your iPhone to someone else to show them some images and want to prevent them from perusing your Hidden album.
At the time of this writing, HiddenAlbumLock doesn’t support Face ID for authentication; it only works with Touch ID or passcode, which is still better than nothing. This could be because it’s an incomplete feature that Apple plans to augment in a future version of iOS. To use the tweak, you must have a passcode set on your device.
If you’re interested in trying HiddenAlbumLock for yourself, then you can download it for free from Cydia’s Packix repository. It works on all jailbroken iOS 10 and 11 devices and doesn’t have any options to configure.
Will you be securing the Hidden album in your Photos app with HiddenAlbumLock going forward? Share in the comments section below.
