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How to Hide Your Sensitive Pictures in Google Photos

How to Hide Your Sensitive Pictures in Google Photos

Now you don't have to worry about someone swiping onto a photographic surprise.

If, for some reason, you have taken photos on your phone that you don’t want just anyone to see, you may want to use some sort of privacy feature. While there are third party apps that can hide your intimate photos, Google recently announced a new feature to lock your private images directly in Google Photos.

To use the new locked folder in Google Photos (which, according to the announcement, is for photos of IDs and passports ... sure), open up the Google Photos app and tap “Library” in the bottom right corner and then “Utilities.” Scroll down to “Locked Folder” and use your fingerprint ID.

You can now set new photos to save directly to the locked folder—which only you can open with said fingerprint ID)—or put older photos in there manually. Just remember that the locked folder is only available on your device—not in the cloud. This is for security purposes because you don’t want your cloud to get hacked, and your private photos along with it. By keeping these sensitive images local, it ensures that only your fingerprint has access.

But, again, what type of photos would someone want to hide? I haven’t the faintest idea. It’s good to know this feature exists, though, just in case.