There is an abundance of third-party apps offering secure and private storage room for photos on your iPhone that are not necessarily meant for everyone’s eyes. As convenient as these can be, the crux with most privately-owned apps is that your pictures may end up being uploaded to somebody else’s (hopefully secure) server.
If you are already entrusting Apple with handling your most sensitive data and would like to keep it between the two of you, that does not mean you are barred from taking and privately storing photos. That is because if you know of a rather inconspicuous setting pertaining to the Notes app and acquaint yourself with a few gestures, swiftly taking and storing photos outside the Camera Roll becomes a breeze.
Here is how you can do it:
Before we delve into the shortcuts and how to use Notes for private photos, we need to do some groundwork:
1) Open Settings on your iPhone and tap Notes.
2) Locate the row that reads Save Media to Photos and deactivate the switch if turned on.
This way, media created within the Notes app is not going to be duplicated and will not be placed in your Photos app.
3) One more step of groundwork and we are ready to roll. If you already have the Notes app widget pinned to your widget screen, skip ahead to Step 5.
If you don’t, from your Lock screen or Home screen swipe right to open your panel of widgets, then scroll to the bottom of the list and hit Edit.
4) Add the Notes widget as seen above.
5) Make sure the Notes widget is maximized (click Show More in the top right corner if it shows) and four shortcut icons will appear at the bottom: new note, new to do list, new photo and new sketch.
6) We’re ready to go: next time you want to quickly take and save a photo of for example sensitive data, instead of swiping left from your Lock screen (for quick camera access), start by swiping right from the Lock screen and hitting the camera button on the Notes widget.
7) The camera app will automatically launch and allow you to take a photo. Once confirmed, the photo will be saved in a new note, which you can subsequently lock as pictured below:
8) After touching the square icon in the top right corner of the note and tapping on Lock Note, use Touch ID or a password to conceal the note and thereby photo.
There you have it, your photo is stashed away securely. Courtesy of the Settings switch, no copy of it will wind up in your Photos app and the locking process ensures that – unlike unprotected entries – the preview of your new note will not boast a thumbnail of the picture in question.
You can rest assured that no one but you has clearance to re-open it and, best of all, no need for another third-party app to clog your Home screen.