Keep Your Hidden Photos Private

Apple has always treated the iPhone as a personal device, which is why you don’t often find many security features in its own first-party apps. The company’s designers seem to miss the reality that some folks may often hand their devices over to other friends and family members or curious kids.

Third-party app developers get this, which is why many apps let you lock them down with Face ID. Apple has made a few allowances to let you secure extremely sensitive information, with options to lock down specific Notes. Of course, authentication is also required to access saved passwords and make purchases. However, beyond that, once you’ve unlocked the iPhone, it’s a pretty open book when it comes to Apple’s built-in apps.

Fortunately, in iOS 16, Apple has finally realized another category of information on users’ iPhones should be kept out of casual view: Hidden and deleted photos.

Now, iOS 16 secures these private areas in your photo library with Face ID or Touch ID by default. You could turn the hidden photo album off entirely in the past, but now you don’t need to; attempting to access either Hidden or Recently Deleted in the Photos app will require a scan of your face or fingerprint before it opens.

You’ll be able to disable this feature under Photos in the Settings app, but you probably won’t want to, especially if you have a Face ID-equipped phone, since, as with most things, that require Face ID authentication, it’s pretty unobtrusive.