A pattern that only works on your phone.
Hidewell Vault encrypts your photos, videos and documents with a key bound to your phone's security chip. Copy the storage off the device and your pattern is worthless. No account, no tracking, no key on our side.
App Store and Google Play. No sign-up, no email.
- Keys bound to the security chip
- Open-source crypto core, audit before launch
- Telemetry off by default
- EU company, GDPR jurisdiction
A pattern alone is a short password.
Patterns are easy to remember, which also makes them easy to guess. If a vault's key comes from the pattern alone, anyone with a copy of your phone's storage, or your cloud backup, can try every pattern on a fast computer.
Hidewell keeps the pattern and removes that shortcut. Every guess has to run through your phone's own security chip, one at a time. Backups use a separate 12-word recovery phrase, so the cloud copy never depends on your pattern.
Set up once. Then it's out of sight.
- 01
Draw a strong pattern
At least 6 dots and 2 turns on a 5×5 grid. A strength meter rejects common shapes like letters, borders and spirals. Add a second stroke for more margin.
- 02
Write down 12 words
Your recovery phrase is shown once and confirmed. It is the only way to restore your backup on a new phone.
- 03
Move files in, clear the rest
Import from your photos, Files or the share sheet. Hidewell then helps you delete the originals and empty Recently Deleted.
Private by design, practical every day.
- Unlock
Pattern vaults
Each pattern opens its own vault. There is no vault list on screen or on disk.
- Under pressure
Duress pattern
Opens a believable decoy and quietly destroys access to your other vaults on that phone.
- Backup
Phrase-keyed backup
Encrypted on your phone, stored in your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive.
- Media
Originals, always
Live Photos, RAW and HEIC kept at full quality. Videos stream without full decryption.
- Organise
Albums and tags
Sort your vault the way you sort your life. Everything stays inside the encrypted index.
- Capture
Secure camera
Shoot straight into a vault. Nothing touches your camera roll.
- Lock
Lock hygiene
Locks when you leave, blurs the app switcher, detects screen recording, and auto-locks on a timer.
- Disguise
Alternate icons
Choose a plain icon so the app doesn't stand out on your home screen.
Two keys open your vault. Neither is stored anywhere.
Your files are encrypted under a random master key. Your pattern unlocks it on your phone. Your recovery phrase unlocks it when you restore a backup. The cloud only ever sees the phrase path.
- 01 Your pattern
Encoded with grid size, dot order and stroke breaks. Never stored.
- 02 Security chip chain
Secure Enclave on iPhone, StrongBox on Android. A serial chain of hardware operations that only this phone can run.
- 03 Argon2id
Memory-hard stretching with a per-vault salt, about 0.5 s per try.
- 04 Vault key
Unwraps the master key. A wrong pattern simply fails to unwrap it.
- 01 12-word recovery phrase
About 128 bits, shown once at setup. Never stored.
- 02 Backup key
Derived from the phrase alone, never from the pattern.
- 03 Encrypted manifest
Holds each vault's wrapped master key. Your cloud only sees ciphertext chunks.
- 04 New pattern
Set on the new phone, bound to its own security chip.
256-bit · never leaves your phone unwrapped - 1 at a time
Each guess runs a serial chain inside the security chip. It can't be copied to a computer or run in parallel.
- <1 s
Target unlock time on the oldest supported phone, hardware chain and Argon2id included.
- Years
To work through a strong pattern space at chip speed on a seized phone.
- 128-bit
Recovery phrase strength. The only thing that can open your cloud backup.
One container, no vault list
All vaults live in one fixed-size file of uniform ciphertext, with no header. Unused space is random fill, and every write also touches unused chunks, so storage never shows how many vaults exist or which one changed.
Nothing to report
Telemetry is off unless you turn on aggregate counts. Logs and crash reports never contain file names, paths or vault counts. Keys are wiped from memory when the app locks.
The trade-off
If you lose both your pattern and your recovery phrase, your files are gone. Nobody can recover them, including us. That is what makes it private.
Who we protect you from, in writing.
We protect what's in your vault from anyone who has your phone or your cloud copy but not your pattern or phrase.
| Who | Has | Can they read it? | How we stop them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casual snooper | Your unlocked phone, for a few minutes | No | Pattern gate, no vault list, alternate icon, auto-lock when you leave the app |
| Thief | Your locked phone | No | iOS and Android data protection, plus our own encryption |
| Forensic examiner | A full copy of the storage, code running on the phone | Only by guessing on that phone, one at a time | Security-chip secret in every key, Argon2id cost on every guess |
| Someone pressuring you | Your phone, and you | Only the vault you open | Duress pattern, hidden vault count |
| Cloud account thief | Your backup | No | Backup keyed from a 128-bit recovery phrase, never the pattern |
| Us | Our servers and analytics | No | No key escrow, no readable server copy, telemetry off by default |
What no app can protect against
- Malware, spyware, or a jailbroken or rooted phone controlled by someone else.
- Someone watching you draw your pattern.
- A phone that's unlocked with the vault already open.
Risks we're upfront about
- A simple pattern on a seized phone can still be guessed with enough time. The strength check exists for this.
- The app itself must be trusted. An open-source core, audited before launch, reduces that but doesn't remove it.
Most vaults derive keys in software. Ours need your phone's hardware.
| Hidewell Vault | Typical pattern vault | |
|---|---|---|
| Vault key | Pattern plus a secret locked in the security chip, Argon2id | Pattern plus a stored salt, software key stretching |
| Backup key | From your 12-word recovery phrase only | Often derived from the pattern |
| Vault count on disk | Hidden in one padded container | Often visible |
| Telemetry | Off by default, never file names | Often on by default |
| Platforms | iPhone and Android at launch | Often one platform |
| Organisation | Albums and tags | Often none |
| Media | Originals by default | Often compressed |
| Code | Open-source crypto core, third-party audit before launch | Usually closed |
Same encryption on every plan.
Free is not a weaker vault. Pro adds room and more ways to stay safe.
Free
€0 Forever- 1 vault
- Up to 150 photos and 15 videos
- Phrase-keyed encrypted backup
- Lock hygiene and alternate icons
Pro yearly
€19.99 Per year- Unlimited vaults and files
- Duress pattern
- Secure camera
- Albums and tags
- Face ID or fingerprint for one vault
Built to grow.
Sharing and devices
Next- Share links that expire, with the key kept out of our servers
- Shared vaults with per-member keys and revocation
- iPad and Mac apps, with encrypted sync
Depth
Later- On-device search for text, objects and faces, kept inside the vault
- Document mode for IDs and records
- Bring your own storage and family vaults
Questions, answered plainly.
Can Hidewell see my photos?
No. Files are encrypted on your phone before they are stored anywhere. We never receive your files, your pattern, your recovery phrase or any key that could open them.
What if I forget my pattern?
Restore from your encrypted backup with your 12-word recovery phrase, then set a new pattern. If you lose both the pattern and the phrase, the data is gone by design.
What is the duress pattern?
A second pattern that opens a real, ordinary-looking decoy vault. In the background it destroys the keys to your other vaults on that phone, leaving their data as random-looking space. Your backup can still be restored later with your recovery phrase.
Can I use Face ID or my fingerprint?
Yes, for one primary vault you choose. It is off by default, and it turns off automatically if you set a duress pattern, because a fingerprint cannot choose between vaults.
Is my cloud backup safe?
Backups are encrypted on your phone and stored in your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive. They are keyed from your recovery phrase, not your pattern, so even a stolen account can't be cracked by guessing patterns.
Does it work on Android?
Yes. iPhone and Android launch together on the same open-source core. On Android, keys use StrongBox where available, with the secure hardware (TEE) as fallback.
Does it keep original quality?
Yes. Photos, Live Photos, RAW and HEIC are kept as originals. Videos stream from the vault without being decrypted all at once.
Can I check the code?
The cryptography core is open source and will be independently audited before launch. You can read exactly how your keys are made.
Keep it to yourself.
Free on iPhone and Android. Your first vault takes about a minute.