How to see Hidden videos on iPhone

If you’re someone who lets your friends and family access your iPhone from time to time, then you would certainly not want them to view your private pictures among others in your photo library. Apple allows iPhone users to hide their sensitive pictures by sending them to a Hidden album so that you can have peace of mind when giving away your iPhone to someone. 

In this post, we’ll explain how you can hide photos on your iPhone on iOS 16.

Hidden Albums in iOS 16: What is new over vs iOS 15?

The option to Hide pictures and videos on an iPhone has existed for a while now but iOS 16 makes it a little more secure. To explain, previous versions of iOS allowed users to move their photos from their main library onto a Hidden album.

This Hidden album was, however, just a tap away from revealing your sensitive pictures and anyone who had physical access to your unlocked iPhone could view your hidden pictures with ease. Another factor that made your hidden photos less secure was that any third-party app that had an image picker would continue to show your hidden pictures even though they were hidden in the Photos app. 

On iOS 16, Apple has made the Hidden album on the Photos app more secure by locking it with your Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode. This means, opening the Hidden album would require you to authenticate using your face or fingerprint so no one other than you can access the pictures you send to this album. This also makes sure that no third-party app can now view your sensitive pictures through its image picker without your access. 

Related: How To Use Locked Folder in Google Photos to hide pictures and videos

How to hide pictures inside Photos on iOS 16

Any pictures or videos you save on the Photos app can be hidden on your iPhone. To hide a picture on Photos, open the Photos app on your iPhone.

From here, you hide a single picture or multiple pictures at once by following the relevant methods below. 

Option 1: Hide one picture at a time

When the Photos app loads up, tap on a picture you want to hide from Library. 

This action will open the selected picture in fullscreen view. Here, tap on the 3-dots icon at the top right corner to get additional options. 

In the overflow menu that appears, select Hide. 

You will see a prompt show up at the bottom. To proceed with your action, tap on Hide Photo in this prompt. 

The selected photo will now disappear from your Library inside the Photos app. 

Related: iOS 16 Notifications on Top: All You Need to Know!

Option 2: Hide multiple pictures at once

If you wish to hide a bunch of pictures and videos at once, tap on Select at the top right corner of the Photos app. 

Now, tap on the pictures you want to hide to select them first. If there are a lot of pictures you want to hide, swipe through them in your Library. 

When you select a picture, you should see a tick mark appear inside a small blue circle at the bottom right corner. Once you’ve selected all the pictures you want to hide, tap on the 3-dots icon at the bottom right corner. 

In the overflow menu that appears, select Hide. 

You’ll now see a prompt at the bottom of the screen asking you to confirm your action. To proceed, tap on Hide <number of> Photos. 

All the selected photos will now disappear from your Library inside the Photos app. 

How to lock hidden photos on iOS 16

iOS 16 brings a layer of security to your hide photos as it locks them with your Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode. The option is enabled by default, meaning all your hidden pictures and videos on the Photos app will be locked automatically as soon as you hide them on the app. 

If for any reason, the hidden photos aren’t locked on iOS 16, you can enable the lock for your hidden content by opening the Settings app. 

Inside Settings, select Photos. 

On the next screen, turn on the Use Face ID toggle if you’re on an iPhone that uses Face ID. On the iPhone 8 and iPhone SE models, you can turn on the Use Touch ID toggle to lock your hidden photos. 

All your pictures in the Hidden album and the Recently Deleted album will now be locked with your Face ID or Touch ID. 

What happens when you hide photos on iOS 16?

When you hide a picture using the Photos app, the picture will disappear from the Library tab on the app. This picture will then be accessible inside your Hidden album which you can get to by going to Photos > Albums > Hidden. Both the pictures and videos you hide using the above methods will appear inside the Hidden Album screen. 

On iOS 16, you won’t be able to access your Hidden album unless you unlock it using Face ID, Touch ID, or your iPhone’s passcode. 

Related: How to Put Time Widget Behind Wallpaper on Lock Screen on iPhone

How to unhide a picture on Photos on iOS 16

If you want to access your hidden photos and no longer want to hide them, you can use the Unhide option to bring them back to your main library. To do that, open the Photos app on your iPhone. 

Inside Photos, tap on the Albums tab at the bottom. 

On this screen, scroll down and select Hidden under “Utilities”. 

You will now have to use Face ID or Touch ID to authenticate your action and access the Hidden album. You can also enter your device passcode if you can’t use Face ID or Touch ID for some reason. 

Once you’re inside the Hidden album, you’ll see all the pictures and videos you hid using the Hide option. To unhide them, tap on Select at the top right corner of the screen. 

Once you make your selection, the pictures you selected will be marked by a tick mark inside a blue circle. To unhide the selected photos, tap on the 3-dots icon at the bottom right corner. 

In the options that appear in the overflow menu, tap on Unhide. 

The selected pictures will now disappear from the Hidden album and go back to your Photos Library. 

You can also unhide a single picture from the Hidden album by opening it in fullscreen and then tapping on the 3-dots icon at the top right corner. 

In the options that appear, tap on Unhide to remove this picture from the Hidden album. 

Can you remove the Hidden Albums lock on iOS 16?

Yes. Although all your hidden pictures inside the Photos app are locked with Face ID or Touch ID by default on iOS 16, you can manually turn this lock off to send pictures to the Hidden album without any extra layer of security. While we wouldn’t suggest such action as it brings the privacy aspect of your hidden photos down a notch, you can certainly do that by following the same guide as above to get to Settings > Photos and then turn off the Use Face ID / Use Touch ID toggle from here. 

When you remove the Face ID or Touch ID lock for your hidden photos, you will be able to access your hidden content much faster but you need to keep in mind that anyone can access them when your iPhone is unlocked. 

That’s all you need to know about hiding photos on your iPhone on iOS 16.

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