I love checking out the newest apps that are available for my iPhone and iPad. Literally, every day, hundreds of new apps are released, and I am just as interested in their capabilities as I am in the types of apps that are currently trending on the market.
One exciting trend that I have taken note of are apps that help secure photos and videos. Recently, there have been some fascinating developments in this area, and the options are plentiful. The popular website Mashable posted an article, featuring six different phone applications that help to hide photos (and this article was referring specifically to nude images!).
These articles made me think; if websites publish information about these seemingly mysterious apps, how will they ever remain a secret? I mean, someone’s mom or romantic partner is bound to read one of these reviews and possibly discover this app on their kid’s or partner’s phone, right? But for now, I digress because as interesting as I thought that question was, I was more interested in trying out one of these apps for myself.
I value my privacy, and like most people, I am concerned with how accessible and permeable technology is becoming in terms of storing sensitive data. Also, I am someone who likes to take nude photos because I am a visual artist. With the consent from my models, I take their picture to use for creative purposes. And from there, I create a drawing or a painting from it.
I always erase the nude images from my camera roll, but with so much content stored on a cloud server, how do we ever truly know what is safe and what is still out there, available on the Net?
Curiosity motivated me to explore the Secret Photo Album, which was one of the apps that were mentioned in the article. Because I didn’t want to commit to a cost, I downloaded the free version to explore without any expectations. Not every app like this offers a free version, so I was happy to have that option with the Secret Photo Album.
First off, I loved the icon. It looks like a calculator, which is deceiving to anyone who picks up your phone. The app then prompted me to create a passcode so that I could unlock the features. I like that I needed to use this passcode every time that I wanted to use the app because it gave an added sense of security, in addition to the sneaky icon design.
I was a little disappointed that the free version of the app does not give access to the cool features that make it stand out, such as the unlimited photo and video storage, premium app icons, and a Facedown Lock feature. The premium version of the Secret Photo Album also offers the ability to create a fake account that I found a bit strange but no less clever.
As an artist who works with images of nude models, I do want to mention that this app does not store any images to a cloud server. Also, when you add photos from your camera roll to the album, you are asked whether or not you want the pictures from the camera to be removed from your phone. For my purposes, this was definitely a handy option.
I also liked that the Secret Photo Album can store your contacts, passwords, or any notes that you want to keep private. I would use this feature to stow away my models’ contact information and other details that are related to my art.
As mentioned, the free version gives such limited access, so if you genuinely want to explore it’s capabilities to the fullest, I recommend purchasing the premium app. However, for what would use the Secret Photo Album for, the free version would suffice until I discover the newest and latest gadget. Or until the secret is out and I need to use something more clandestine instead.
Here is a tip to get the premium features for free. You can visit Secret Photo Album(https://www.reddit.com/r/SecretPhotoAlbum/), join this subreddit and post anything you feel about this app: any questions, reviews, suggestions, anything related to it. Once your post gets top 10 upvotes, you will luckily receive lifetime premium features as gifts (worth $18.99!) by redeeming the promo code.
