---
title: "What Is Vault app on iPhone? Meaning and Settings"
description: "A vault app stores chosen photos, videos and files outside the iPhone Photos app, behind its own lock. How it differs from the Hidden album and what to look for."
url: https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/vault-app
lang: en-gb
published: 2026-10-31
updated: 2026-10-31
author: "VaultForYou Editorial Team"
publisher: VaultForYou
---

# What is Vault app?

Published 2026-10-31 - Updated 2026-10-31 - By VaultForYou Editorial Team

## Quick answer

A vault app keeps the photos, videos and files you choose outside the Photos app, in a separate space behind its own lock. Good ones encrypt the files and use a lock that is separate from your iPhone passcode.

- **Vs Hidden album:** Files leave the Photos library entirely.
- **Check:** Own lock, encryption, backup, export.
- **After import:** Delete originals and empty Recently Deleted.

The main difference from the Hidden album is where the file lives. Hidden photos stay in your library and iCloud Photos; vault files don't appear in Photos, search or widgets. VaultForYou, our app, opens each vault with a pattern you draw and can show a decoy vault under a duress pattern.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a vault app safer than the Hidden album?

It can be. The Hidden album opens with your iPhone passcode and syncs with iCloud Photos. A vault app with its own lock and encryption keeps files out of the Photos library, away from anyone who only knows your passcode. Check how it backs up and exports.

## Guides that use this term

- [The 8 best photo vault apps for iPhone, compared honestly](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/blog/best-photo-vault-apps-iphone)

## Related terms

- [Decoy vault](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/decoy-vault)
- [Hidden album](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/hidden-album)
- [Zero-knowledge encryption](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary/zero-knowledge-encryption)

## Browse

- [All glossary terms](https://www.vaultforyou.app/en-gb/glossary)

---

Our guides are written and fact-checked by the VaultForYou team against Apple's own documentation. We make VaultForYou, a private vault app for iPhone. Download on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/vaultforyou/id0000000000