To lock the whole gallery, use your phone's own App lock (Xiaomi, OPPO, realme, OnePlus and vivo have one) or an app locker, and lock Google Photos too. Samsung and Pixel phones have no app lock, so hide chosen photos in Secure Folder, Samsung's private album or Google Photos' Locked Folder. A locked gallery doesn't stop WhatsApp from showing your photos.
Locking the gallery and hiding photos are different jobs
An app lock puts a PIN, pattern or fingerprint in front of the gallery app. Nothing moves: your photos stay where they are, and the lock only stops someone holding your phone from opening the app.
A private album or locked folder moves the photos you choose out of the gallery into a protected place. The rest of the gallery stays open, but those photos are gone from it, and from most other apps too.
Which one you need depends on who you're worried about. If someone borrows your phone and scrolls through your pictures, lock the app. If you hand your phone over freely and only a few photos must never be seen, hide those.
An app lock guards the door. A private album takes the photos out of the room.
What your phone already has, brand by brand
Most Android phones do one of the two jobs without a download. Menu names shift a little between versions, so if a path doesn't match, search Settings for “App lock” or “Private”.
- 01Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO: Settings > Apps > App lock locks the whole Gallery. To hide single photos, select them and tap ⋮ > Add to album > Private album; swipe down on the Albums screen to open it.
- 02OPPO, realme and OnePlus: Settings > Security & privacy > App Lock, with a privacy password of its own. In Photos, select pictures and tap ⋮ > Set as private to move them to the Private album.
- 03vivo and iQOO: Settings > Fingerprint, face and password > Privacy and app encryption, then turn on the switch for Albums. vivo can't lock a single album, only the whole app.
- 04Samsung: One UI has no app lock. Use Secure Folder (Settings > Security and privacy > More security settings), which has its own PIN, or, on newer models with One UI 8.5, select photos in Gallery and tap More > Move to private album.Get it onGoogle PlayInstall
- 05Pixel, and any phone with Google Photos: open Photos > Collections > Locked to set up a Locked Folder, then move photos in with Add to > Move to Locked Folder. It opens with your screen lock.
- 06Infinix and Tecno: look for App Lock under Settings > Privacy or Security, or in Phone Master.
Lock the whole gallery with an app lock
On a Samsung or a Pixel, or if you want one lock that works the same on every app, use an app locker. Lock both your phone's Gallery and Google Photos: most phones have the two, they show the same pictures, and locking one leaves the other open.
AppLock Master suggests both when you set it up, and puts a PIN, pattern or fingerprint on any other app you pick, such as Files, WhatsApp or Instagram. After repeated wrong tries it takes a photo with the front camera, and it asks for your PIN before anyone can uninstall it. It's free, with ads.
- 01Install AppLock Master and allow Usage access and Display over other apps, so it can see which app is opening and show the lock screen.
- 02Tick Gallery and Photos. Add Files too, because a file manager opens the same pictures.
- 03Choose a PIN, a pattern or your fingerprint, and set a security question in case you forget it.
More detail: See who tried to open your gallery →
What a locked gallery still shows
An app lock protects the app, not the photos. Your pictures stay in the phone's shared storage, where any app with photo permission can still read them. The same is true of chats: locking WhatsApp keeps people out of the app, not out of the photos it saved.
- ✕WhatsApp's attach screen still lists your recent pictures. On Android 14 and later, set WhatsApp's Photos and videos permission to Allow limited access, so it only sees the photos you choose.
- ✕The photo picker that opens when any app asks for a picture belongs to Android, not to the gallery, so the lock doesn't cover it. Photos moved into Google Photos' Locked Folder stay out of it.
- ✕Copies stay behind. Moving a photo to a locked folder moves only that file. The copy WhatsApp saved when you sent or received it is still in its own album.
- ✕Backups in Google Photos open at photos.google.com on any computer signed in to your Google account.
Which one should you use?
Someone borrows your phone and opens the gallery: lock the gallery app with your phone's App lock or an app locker, and lock Google Photos and Files with it.
A few photos must never be seen, even by someone you hand your phone to: move them to a private album, Secure Folder or Google Photos' Locked Folder.
Both: use the two together. They don't get in each other's way, and hidden photos inside a locked gallery are the hardest to stumble on.