Nobody can count your vaults.
Each pattern opens its own vault, and the unlock screen never lists them. On disk, vaults are mixed with random decoys. With Pro, nothing on the phone keeps count, not even for us.
Your hidden album isn’t hidden.
Anyone who knows your passcode can open it. Umbra locks your photos, videos, files and notes behind a pattern only you know, and keeps them encrypted on your phone.
Free to start. No account, no email, no analytics.
On a computer?Scan with your phone camera to install.
Someone takes your phone. Now what?
A locked folder tells people there’s something to find. Umbra gives them something to find instead.
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They ask you to open it.
Umbra opens to an empty grid of dots. No vault list, no count, nothing to point at.
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You draw your duress pattern.
It looks like any other unlock. You set it up once, next to your real pattern.
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They see a harmless vault.
Holiday photos and a packing list. The way into your other vaults is quietly removed from the phone.
Your real vaults come back later with your recovery phrase. If you’d rather they were gone for good, you can tell the duress pattern to destroy them instead. The duress pattern is part of Umbra Pro.
Every way in, closed.
Screenshots come out black.
So do screen recordings and mirroring. The app switcher shows a cover instead of your files, and Umbra locks the moment you leave it.
See who tried to get in.
Every wrong pattern is logged and sealed so only your vault can read it. With Pro, Umbra also takes a silent photo with the front camera.
Switch phones. Keep the vault.
Your recovery phrase restores everything, on iPhone, iPad or Android, in either direction. On iPhone and iPad, backups also go to iCloud automatically, encrypted before they leave the device.
Also inside
- Secure camera
- Photos and videos taken in Umbra never touch your camera roll.
- Document scanner
- Scan paper straight into an encrypted PDF.
- Albums, favorites and notes
- Organized like Photos, encrypted like nothing else.
- Video that stays encrypted
- Videos play straight from the encrypted file, never decrypted to storage.
- Invisible pattern
- Hide the trail while you draw, for crowded trains and curious friends.
- Disguise iconPRO
- Make Umbra look like a calculator or another everyday app.
- Clean imports
- After importing, Umbra offers to delete the originals from your library.
- Sync across iPhone and iPadPRO
- Open the same vault on both. Changes merge, encrypted end to end.
- Share a vaultPRO
- Read-only, with a one-time phrase, an expiry date and a limit on opens. Revoke it any time.
- Share to Umbra
- Send photos and files from any app. They stay sealed until you unlock.
- Your own recovery phrase
- Use 12 generated words or a phrase you choose, and replace it whenever you like.
Your pattern is the key. Literally.
It isn’t a password checked against a server. Your phone turns it into the key that opens your vault, every time. Here is what that means in practice.
- Copied files are useless
- Your pattern is stretched with Argon2id, a memory-hard function that makes guessing slow and expensive, and mixed with a secret that never leaves your phone. Files copied off the device can’t be guessed at somewhere else.
- Every file sealed
- AES-256-GCM, with a separate random key for each item. Videos are encrypted in small chunks, so they stream without ever being written to storage in the clear.
- Vault count hidden
- Keys are stored under names derived from the keys themselves and mixed with random decoys. Nothing on screen says how many vaults exist, and with Pro nothing on the phone does either.
- Recovery without us
- A 12-word phrase, or one you choose, restores your vault on any phone. We never see it, so nobody can ask us to reset it.
- Backups Apple can’t sort
- iCloud receives only encrypted records, padded to fixed sizes and mixed with decoys, so it can’t even tell which records belong to the same vault.
- No tracking
- No account, no analytics, no ads. The only outside code is the purchase library that checks your subscription, and it never sees your vault.
Why not just use the Hidden album?
It hides photos from the grid. It doesn’t hide them from anyone who has your passcode.
| Hidden album | Umbra | |
|---|---|---|
| Opens with | Your phone’s passcode or Face ID | A pattern only you know |
| Encrypted with its own key | No | Yes, AES-256 |
| Decoy vault for when you’re forced | No | Yes, the duress pattern (Pro) |
| Separate hidden vaults | No | 3 free, unlimited with Pro |
| Share without handing over your phone | Shared albums are readable by anyone in them | Read-only, expiring, revocable (Pro) |
| Screenshots blocked | No | Yes |
| Logs wrong attempts | No | Yes |
| Notes and documents | Photos and videos only | Photos, videos, PDFs, scans and notes |
| Works on Android | No | Yes, and vaults move between them |
Encryption, hidden vaults and backups are free. Pro adds the cover stories: duress, sync, sharing and disguise icons. Weighing up other vault apps? See how Umbra compares.
Start free. Go Pro for the cover stories.
Encryption, hidden vaults and backups are free. Pro removes the limits and adds duress, sync and sharing.
Free
$0forever
- Up to 3 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos
- Unlimited notes, PDFs and scans
- Screenshot blocking and break-in log
- Secure camera, scanner and notes
- Encrypted backup and recovery phrase
Pro
$14.99a year, after 7 days free
- Unlimited vaults and files
- Duress pattern
- Sync across iPhone and iPad, and vault sharing
- Disguise icons and silent intruder photo
- Family plans for up to 6 people: $42.49 a year or $84.99 once
- Or $1.99 a week, or $39.99 once for life
Prices in US dollars. Your App Store or Google Play shows the price in your currency. Family plans are sold on the App Store.
Questions
What if I forget my pattern?
On the unlock screen, tap Use recovery phrase and enter your 12 words, then draw a new pattern. If you lose both the pattern and the phrase, nobody can open the vault, including us. That’s the point.
Can Apple, Google or you see my files?
No. Files are encrypted on your phone before they’re saved anywhere, and the key comes from your pattern. iCloud backups are encrypted the same way before they leave. We don’t run servers that hold your data.
Do I need an account?
No. There’s no sign-up, no email and no login. Open the app, draw a pattern, write down your 12 words.
How does the duress pattern work?
It’s part of Umbra Pro. You give one vault a second pattern. Drawing it opens that vault and removes the way into every other vault from the phone. Your recovery phrase brings them back later, unless you chose to have the duress pattern destroy their data.
How many vaults can I have?
Up to 3 on the free plan, holding 100 photos and 10 videos between them, plus unlimited notes and documents. Pro removes every limit.
Can I use it on iPad, or share a vault?
Yes. With Pro, the same vault opens on your iPhone and iPad and changes merge between them. You can also share a vault read-only with a one-time phrase, choose when it expires and how many times it opens, and revoke it whenever you want.
What can I store?
Photos, videos, documents and PDFs, scans from the built-in scanner, and notes. You can sort them into albums and mark favorites.
Can I move from iPhone to Android?
Yes, both ways. Export an encrypted backup file, open it in Umbra on the other phone and enter your recovery phrase. On iPhone, iCloud backup also restores with just your phrase.
Do you collect analytics?
No. Umbra has no analytics or advertising code. The only outside library handles purchases, and it never sees your vault.
A vault that doesn’t admit it exists.
Set it up in a minute. Draw a pattern, write down 12 words, and your photos are yours again.