I love how the app vanishes when you leave its window or lock your device. If someone were to pick up your phone, they won’t immediately see the app or its contents. The basic photo or video hiding functionality is free to use, but you’ll pay a monthly fee to enjoy perks like intruder photo capturing, ad removal, and disguising the app as a calculator.
Gallery Vault
| Monthly $0.27 |
Yearly $3 |
Lifetime $10 |
| No ads, Unlimited cloud storage, Fingerprint & pattern unlock, Folder lock & break in alerts, Dark mode & fake password, Shake to close app, Random password keyboard. |
Same features as monthly plan. | Same features as monthly plan. |
GalleryVault works similarly to Vaulty. But you really can’t skip the process of adding an account — even though there’s literally a skip button. However, the app disguise feature is free, and you can turn it into a calculator.
The app supports photos, videos, documents, and other file types. You can upload up to 100 files to the cloud per month, and adding them is easy. You can separate them into different folders or even batch edit the folders. The ads are excessive, but are removed with a small fee.
LockMyPix
| Monthly $0.15 |
Yearly $0.77 |
Lifetime $12 |
| Lock unlimited files, Restore files from trash, No ads, Full AES encryption. |
Same features as monthly plan. | Same features as monthly plan. |
Lockmypix has a more visually appealing interface, the highly secure Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and more features to offer. You can scan your folders for duplicates when you’re done adding them. You may also add an alternative PIN, in case you forget the first one. With encrypted notes, you can write your thoughts or personal information and store them privately in the app.
The more interesting features are locked behind a subscription, but are worth having for a full private experience. When you subscribe, you’ll access design controls. Disguising the app also presents options beyond a calculator. You can make it appear as a torchlight, or cause it to trigger another vault on your phone as a decoy.
AI Locker
| 3-month $1.42 |
Yearly $3.23 |
| Color themes, No ads, Night mode, Intruder selfie. |
Same features as 3-month plan. |
This app is dedicated to protecting other apps, and provides most of the features you’d pay for on other apps for free. It includes intruder selfies and app disguising. You can even go further to display a crash message when someone tries to open a locked app. If you use PIN protection, you can randomize the number appearance every time someone tries to open the vault.
Since the app uses AI, you’ll often find suggestions on how to make your experience better. It’ll also keep record of all successful and failed unlocking attempts. Pay for the premium plan and you’ll unlock ad removal and color themes, among other features.
Neo Vault
| Monthly $3.34 |
Yearly $4 |
Lifetime $11 |
| Hide large files, No ads, Multiple customised themes, Google Drive explorer, Get new features quicker. |
Same features as monthly plans. |
Neo Vault is perfect for minimalists who don’t care for fancy features. The main screen has a + sign for creating a collection and adding photos or videos to it. You may decide to wipe the original copy after adding them. The app also supports Google Drive backups, so you can keep your files safe in case of accidental loss.
A Gold membership increases the upload size of videos or photos to 100MB and over. Neo won’t encrypt such large files, but it still keeps them safe within its reach. Your subscription also unlocks the ability to explore your Google Drive backups and see what’s missing. Plus, ads disappear and you can use color themes.
Explore more privacy-focused apps
The apps on this list are just a few of many on the Google Play Store. If you can’t choose one that meets your privacy goals, don’t be afraid to explore others. But first, do your research. Read online reviews of user experiences, so that you have a better sense of how effective the app is.
More importantly, don’t rely solely on apps to protect your data. On your own, you can use stronger phone passwords and change them periodically. You may also move your files to cloud storage apps and delete the version on your device. Better still, use its in-built feature for hiding files.
