Comparison
Best photo vault app for Android
Disclosure: we build one of the four apps below. That's a bias, so the criteria come first and the "when to pick something else" section is honest — including the two cases where we lose.
The question people actually have is "which of these will keep my photos private". On Android there are three different things sold as the same thing:
| What it does | What it protects | What defeats it | |:---|:---|:---| | Hides files from the gallery | A quick look at your phone | A file manager, a computer, a backup | | Locks the UI behind a PIN | Someone who picked up your phone | Clearing app data, or the app's own cloud | | Encrypts the file itself | A copy of your storage, a repair shop, a stolen phone | Losing the key |
Only the third one survives "someone gets the files". So the comparison is mostly about which apps do the third one.
The four, side by side
| App | Files encrypted on disk | Account required | Cloud backup | Ads in free tier | Recovery if you forget the PIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep Photo: Photo Vault in final testing |
Yes — AES-256-GCM, key from your PIN | No | No cloud; export to storage you control | None | Only with the recovery code you printed |
| Keepsafe 50M+ installs |
Vault items are protected; the free tier is primarily a private gallery | Optional for local use, needed for their cloud | Keepsafe Cloud (paid) | Yes in the free tier | Depends on the item — cloud items are recoverable via account |
| GalleryVault 50M+ installs |
App-level protection; cloud sync available | No for local | Optional cloud sync | Yes | App-dependent; no key recovery |
| LockMyPix 10M+ installs |
Yes — encrypted, with a recovery-key flow | No for local | Optional encrypted backup | Yes | Recovery key, if you saved it |
Details change; check each app's Play listing before deciding. What doesn't change is the structural question in the second column.
How to tell them apart in five minutes
The table above is a summary of claims. Claims are cheap, so verify:
- Airplane mode test. Turn off all radios, import a photo. An app that needs the network to import is doing something with your file.
- Account test. If it asks you to sign up, ask where the key lives. "We can restore your vault by email" means they hold a copy.
- Trash test. Delete one photo through the app, then look in your gallery's trash. If it's there in plaintext, the app wasn't encrypting the original.
- File manager test. Look in
/Android/data/<package>and/Android/media/<package>. Readable JPEGs = hidden folder with a lock screen, not a vault.
Run these on any app, including ours. The tests are the same four questions and they don't care about marketing.
When you should pick something else
- You want a cloud backup and don't mind an account. Keepsafe does this well and has done it for a decade. Our answer — export to storage you control — is not a backup until you actually do it.
- You want a disguised icon (calculator vault). We deliberately don't hide the app. If the disguise is the feature you need, we're the wrong choice.
- You have the phone and nothing else, and you forget PINs. Any real vault will cost you the files. If that risk outweighs the privacy, a manufacturer's Secure Folder is the better trade.
- You want the cheapest option and don't care about encryption. Any gallery "hide album" toggle is free.
What we take from this comparison
We're betting that a meaningful number of people care about one specific property: that the files are unreadable, and that the app can prove it doesn't upload anything. That's a narrow bet, and it loses on convenience, cloud features, and icon trickery.
If that property is what you're after, Photo Vault is in final testing — PIN plus a recovery code, encrypted on device, works in airplane mode. If it isn't, the table above should help you pick something that fits better.