For years, iPhone and iPad users have been asking for ways to hide photos from the main camera role in the Photos app. Apple has finally come up with a way to tackle this feature with iOS 14 thanks to a new Hidden Album switch. Here’s how to hide photos from the camera roll on iPhone in iOS 14 …
There are many reasons why people want to hide photos, maybe your photos are only meant for certain people to see or you have screenshots you want to keep but your main photo library does not want to clutter. Maybe you took a picture of a gift for your kids that you want to keep a surprise for a little longer.
In earlier versions of iOS you can ‘hide’ photos. Select a photo, press the Share button and press Hide. This removes the image from the main tab of the Library, which makes it feel hidden.
However, the photo can be easily found by going to Albums -> Other Albums -> Hidden.
This kind of misses the point, because someone who views all your photos can get it very easily. A toddler could accidentally apply to the hidden album view, they don’t even have to explicitly search for it.
With iOS 14, however, you can now go one step further. You can now view the Hidden Album from view, removing all traces of hidden images from the Photos app.
To do this, open Settings -> Photos and disable Hidden Album. Then go back to the Photos app and you will notice that there is no way to navigate to the hidden album and your hidden photos are really not available in the Photos app.
While this is an important step in the right direction, there will still be users who want more. Of course, if you’re actually trying to hide something, an intruder could very easily open the Settings app and disable the switch to open the Hidden album itself.
Many people have asked Apple for a way to secure the hidden album, such as using Touch ID or Face ID, so that only they can access it as a second layer of authentication outside of unlocking the phone itself. Unfortunately, this kind of functionality is not available in the native Photos app on iOS 14 (however, Apple lets you lock and unlock Notes in Notes.)
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