Hide a photo without installing an app
In Photos, press and hold a picture, choose Hide, and confirm. Try this with an unimportant image first so you can check the result.
Find your hidden photo again
Open Collections → Utilities → Hidden and authenticate. If the album is missing, check Show Hidden Album in Settings → Apps → Photos; some versions group this under Albums.
When you want a separate photo vault
Use the built-in option when your goal is simply to keep selected pictures out of everyday browsing. Choose a separate vault when you also want a different way to unlock your collection, or want photos, documents and notes together.
Veil opens an encrypted space with a pattern. You can create different spaces with different patterns; the unlock screen does not display their names. The files use AES-256-GCM encryption. This is separate access to a collection, not a promise that nobody can detect the app or its stored data.
Move a small sample before your whole library
Create a space in Veil and keep its recovery code somewhere separate from the phone. Import a few nonessential photos, open them, then lock and unlock the space to check they are still accessible. For a video, play it; a thumbnail is not enough to verify the entire file.
Importing makes a copy. Keep your originals while you check the result and export an encrypted backup. A backup and its matching recovery code are a pair: test restoration with sample files before relying on it for irreplaceable pictures. Decide whether to remove originals only after those checks.
Choose the next step that fits your situation
If the Hidden album meets your needs, you can stop there. If you want a collection with its own pattern, explore Veil and start with the sample workflow above. For a detailed comparison, read the Hidden album versus photo vault guide. To move an existing collection, follow the import and backup guides below.