Hidlet vs PV - Secret Photo Album: Which Is More Private?

Hidlet is an iPhone app

Point your iPhone camera at the code to install. No account needed.

or text me the link

PV - Secret Photo Album has more than 30,000 ratings on the US App Store and was updated the day before we checked it. It hides photos and videos behind a passcode, with Face ID, a fake password, a calculator theme and a long list of extras. If you’re choosing between it and Hidlet, the question that matters is what actually protects your photos, on the phone and in the cloud.

This comparison puts the two side by side, using only what PV’s own App Store listing, FAQ, website and privacy policy say. Where we couldn’t confirm something, we say so.

Checked on 25 October 2026, against PV - Secret Photo Album 7.7.7 on the US App Store.

The short version

How each one protects your photos

PV’s listing promises “passcode protect, fingerprint touch ID and data encryption”, and it describes “encrypted data transfer”. That’s all the developer says. It doesn’t name an encryption method, say how keys are made or kept, or say whether anything in the cloud is encrypted.

That doesn’t mean the photos are poorly protected. It means you can’t check what “data encryption” covers.

Hidlet is built so the answer is written down:

• Each vault has its own random key.
• Every photo and video is encrypted with AES-256 before it’s saved.
• Your pattern unlocks the vault’s key on the phone and is never stored anywhere.
• Guessing patterns is slowed down on purpose, and after three wrong guesses each one adds a growing wait.

More on that on the pattern lock page, and on what AES-256 really protects in Is the iPhone Hidden Album Encrypted?

When someone makes you unlock it

PV has two answers. A fake password opens the app without your real photos; its FAQ even warns that if your photos seem gone, you may have logged in with the fake one. And an Emergency Switch jumps to another app when you turn the phone face down. There’s also a calculator theme, where you type your passcode and press “%”.

One thing is unclear. The listing names “Fake password protection” as a basic feature, but also lists “Fake Password” among the paid Super Membership features. We couldn’t confirm which applies.

In Hidlet, every pattern opens its own vault, and the app never shows a list of them. You can keep a vault of ordinary photos and open that one when pressed. That’s the decoy vault, and it’s in the free plan. Pro adds a duress pattern that also removes this phone’s access to your other vaults, while the encrypted backup stays in your iCloud. Hidlet has no calculator disguise and no face-down switch.

Backup, new phones and forgotten codes

By default, PV keeps your files on the device. Its FAQ says that if you delete the app without a backup, “the photos/videos will be gone”. Backup costs extra:

• PV’s own cloud: Cloud Sync and auto backup, from $12.99 to $79.99 a year for 20 or 100 GB. The listing doesn’t say where it’s hosted. The privacy policy says your personal information “may be collected, used and stored in China”.
• Other clouds: manual upload to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or OneDrive, for Pro members. iCloud isn’t mentioned.

For a new phone, the FAQ lists four ways: a third-party cloud, iTunes sync, Wi-Fi transfer to a PC, or exporting to Photos and using AirDrop. If you forget your passcode, PV relies on the optional recovery email, so it helps only if you set it up beforehand.

Hidlet keeps the key with you:

• Backup: each vault is encrypted on the phone, then saved to your own iCloud. Neither Apple nor we can open it. It’s free.
• New phone: install Hidlet and draw your pattern. This works when iCloud Keychain is on; if it’s off, your recovery phrase restores the vault instead. See how to move a photo vault to a new iPhone.
• Forgot your pattern: enter the 9-word recovery phrase and set a new pattern, free.

The trade-off is real: lose both the pattern and the phrase, and the vault can’t be opened by anyone, including us.

Ads and your data

PV’s listing says “Contains Advertising”, and a paid plan removes the ads. The privacy policy names AdMob for ads and the umeng SDK for analytics, and lists data such as the IDFA and location next to umeng.

The App Store privacy label lists identifiers and usage data as “Data Used to Track You”. It also lists your email address and user ID as linked to you, for app functionality.

Hidlet has no accounts, no email and no ads, and it includes no analytics or tracking code.

Where PV is better

PV has plenty Hidlet doesn’t:

• Face ID and Touch ID, if you’d rather not draw a pattern.
• A calculator theme and a face-down Emergency Switch.
• More tools: a photo editor, tags, notes and search, Wi-Fi transfer and Nearby Drop.
• Unlimited storage on the device in the free version.

Hidlet’s limits are worth knowing too. It runs on iPhone and iPad (sync between them needs Pro), and the free plan holds 3 vaults with up to 100 photos and 10 videos in each.

The bottom line

PV is a busy, well-rated vault with a fake password, a calculator theme and lots of extras. But it shows ads on the free version, it doesn’t say how its encryption works, and backup means paying for its own cloud or uploading to another one. If you want photos encrypted with a key only you hold, a free encrypted backup to your own iCloud and no ads or tracking, Hidlet is built for exactly that.

Hidlet is available on the App Store.