Private library

Quiet on the outside.
Locked on the inside.

VEIL opens as an ordinary, beautiful photo organiser. The private library sits behind it, encrypted, and opens only with your passphrase, Face ID or Touch ID.

Opening it

Hold the VEIL title at the top of the library for about a second. The gesture is described in Settings, where you can change it, and VoiceOver users get it as an action.
Enter your passphrase, or use Face ID or Touch ID if you turned it on for that library.
VEIL locks again the moment you leave the app, after a timeout you choose, or when you tap Lock.

The VEIL library with a soft ring around the title, showing the hold gesture in progress. — Hold the title to open private access. Design preview with sample photos.

The private library, unlocked: a grid of photos with a lock button in the top corner. — The private library, unlocked. Design preview with sample photos.

How it is protected

Each photo and video is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it is written, with its own key.
Those keys are protected by a library key that only your passphrase (through Argon2id) or your recovery key can unlock.
Face ID and Touch ID use a key held in this device’s Secure Enclave. It cannot be copied to another device or a backup.
Thumbnails, names, dates and albums are encrypted too, not just the photos.
Wrong guesses get slower each time, and the attempt log stays on your device.

The alternate library

You can set up a second library with a different passphrase. It opens from the same lock screen and looks exactly the same. Which library opens depends only on the passphrase you type.

The key file has a fixed number of slots, all the same size, whether you use one library or two.
Neither passphrase can open, list or count the other library.
You can delete the alternate library at any time from inside it.

The alternate library: identical layout to the private library with different photos. — The alternate library. Design preview with sample photos.

What it cannot do

I would rather tell you the limits than oversell. The alternate library is meant to help when someone looks over your shoulder or asks you to open the app. It is not proof against a forensic examination of your device, and it cannot stop someone who can force you to reveal every passphrase.

Your iPhone’s own passcode and Face ID still protect everything else. Use a strong device passcode.
If you lose your passphrase and your recovery key, nobody can open the library, including me. There is no reset.
Photos you shared, or that are still in the Photos app or its iCloud, are outside VEIL’s protection.
VEIL’s encryption has not yet had an independent security review. The security page will say when it has.

Get VEIL

Coming to the App Store