The private camera

The private camera takes photos and videos straight into Hidden. They’re encrypted as they’re written, so they never land in your camera roll or in iCloud Photos.

What it is

It’s Paperwise’s own camera, opened with the Camera button at the bottom of Hidden. It has:

Photo and Video modes
the switch between front and back cameras, and flash (or the torch in video)
the recording time while you film (there’s no self-timer)
a “Taken this session” count instead of thumbnails of earlier shots
Done to go back to Hidden

What you take appears in Hidden under Photos (and in All), newest first.

This is different from Photo in the vault’s Add sheet, which uses the system camera, takes photos only, and saves to your vault.

When to use it

Whenever a photo shouldn’t exist anywhere else: a document you’re photographing in a hurry, a private picture, a video you don’t want backed up to iCloud Photos. If you already took it with the iPhone’s Camera app, it’s in Photos; see Move photos out of Photos.

Step by step

Take a photo or video

Open Hidden (Face ID, plus your code or pattern if you use one).
Tap Camera at the bottom.
Choose Photo or Video and take your shots.
Tap Done. Your photos and videos are in Hidden.

In Hidden, tap the Photos chip.
Tap a photo or video to see it full screen. Swipe between them, pinch to zoom, play videos.
At the bottom:
- Share: Create share link (Pro) or Share a copy…. A copy shared from here leaves Hidden.
- Move to album: albums live inside Hidden.
- Export to Photos: puts a copy in the Photos app. That copy is no longer protected by Hidden.
- Unhide: moves it to your vault as a file.
- Delete forever: removes it from this iPhone at once. There’s no Recently deleted in Hidden.

Free and Pro

The private camera is free.

Pro: share links to hidden photos and videos, and syncing Hidden across iPhone and iPad.

Privacy

Photos are encrypted in memory before they’re written to storage. Videos are recorded in small pieces, each encrypted as it arrives, so readable video never reaches the iPhone’s storage.
Nothing is saved to the Photos app or the camera roll, so nothing goes to iCloud Photos.
Thumbnails are decrypted in memory only, never stored readable on the iPhone.
To play a video, Paperwise decrypts it to a temporary file protected by iOS, and deletes it when you close the viewer (and again at launch, if the app was closed first).
Hidden’s screens block screenshots and screen recording (best effort: iOS can’t stop every capture).

Tips

Want to take a photo without unlocking your iPhone? Add the Lock Screen camera. See The Lock Screen camera.
Export to Photos and Share a copy… make readable copies outside Hidden. A share link (Pro) stops working after its expiry (7 days at most), though anyone who opens it can still save a copy.

What if…

What if the camera doesn’t open?

Check that Paperwise is allowed to use the camera in Settings → Paperwise, then try again. If it says “Couldn’t open the camera”, close Hidden and open it again.

What if a long video takes a moment to play?

Paperwise decrypts the whole video before it plays, at the speed of your iPhone’s storage. Long videos take a little longer to start.