Locked Folder, Secure Folder or Private Space: do you need a vault app?
Short answer. The built-in tools are free and already on your phone, and for many people they are enough. The main differences are the lock (most reuse your screen lock), backup (some can sync to the cloud, some cannot) and what happens if the phone is lost. A vault app like ZeroBox suits you when you want a separate PIN, no cloud and no account at all.
Google Photos Locked Folder
- Hides items from the Photos grid, search and albums, and from other apps that can read your photos.
- Uses your device screen lock. Anyone who can unlock the phone can open it.
- Backup is off by default. With it on, items are visible on your other devices signed in to the same Google Account and count toward your storage. Without it, items live only on that phone and are lost if you uninstall Photos, clear its data, reset the phone, or lose or break it.
- Needs Android 6 or later; not available on fully managed devices.
Samsung Secure Folder
- A separate area on Galaxy phones, isolated by Samsung Knox. Samsung describes it as encrypted.
- Opens with a passcode, pattern, PIN, fingerprint or face.
- Samsung says the folder has no direct backup: to back it up, you move the files out first and save them to Samsung Cloud or another service.
Android Private Space
- A separate space for apps, on Android 15 or later and on supporting hardware. When locked, its apps are stopped and hidden from the launcher, recents, search and Settings.
- You can use your screen lock or a separate lock for it.
- Google says it is not restored from a device backup. If you forget its lock, access cannot be recovered; deleting it deletes its apps and data permanently.
- Google recommends a dedicated Google Account for it: signing in with your main account can expose synced photos and other data outside the space.
A vault app like ZeroBox
- Its own PIN, separate from the phone's screen lock, and a second PIN that opens a different vault.
- Files sealed with AES-256, screenshots blocked, no internet permission, no account and no cloud.
- The price of that: nothing syncs. You move to a new phone with a transfer file you save yourself, and with no recovery key and no transfer file a lost phone is a lost vault. See the recovery and new phone guide.
- It is one more app to install, and you must keep your PIN and recovery key safe yourself.
How to choose
- You want the simplest thing and trust your screen lock: use the built-in tool, and turn on backup if you want the photos to survive a lost phone.
- You sometimes hand your unlocked phone to other people: a lock separate from the screen lock matters more, whether that is a Private Space lock or a vault PIN.
- You do not want any copy of these photos in anyone's cloud: pick something with no sync, and keep your own transfer file.