Some things are private: a document, a set of personal photos, a note you only want one person to read. A locked folder or an encrypted zip keeps them safe, but it also announces that something private is there. Hiding them inside an ordinary photo doesn't.
snapWONDERS Vaultify hides one or more files inside a photo or video, protected by a password. The result opens and looks like the original picture. Only someone with the password can get the files back out.
Hide your files
- Go to Hide and add the files you want to keep private. You can add several. A free account hides photos, videos and audio; documents, PDFs and other files need a Pro account.
- Choose the cover, a photo or video of your own. A video has room for more.
- Set a strong password. It's the only way back in.
- Leave Strip metadata on (it's on by default), so neither the cover nor the hidden files carry your location or device details.
- Download the result. It's saved as a new lossless image (AVIF by default; choose PNG or WebP if it needs to open everywhere). On screen it looks the same as your photo, but the file is larger.
Get them back
Go to Reveal, upload the photo and enter the password. Your files come back out. To make room, a hidden photo is saved as a compact JPEG (at most 1,280 px across) and a hidden video is compressed, so they come back a little smaller than they went in.
A worked example: a note hidden in a field
We hid a short note inside one of our own photos, a gum tree over canola fields. A free account can hide pictures, video and audio, so the note went in as a small picture of a note.
They look the same. The result is a new lossless AVIF file, resized to 2,048 × 1,536 px on a free account, and 6.9 MB against the original's 5.4 MB.
Then we put the result through Reveal with the password:
The note came back readable. Like any hidden photo, it was saved as a compact JPEG on the way in, so it isn't the identical file.
See it as a before and after: a note hidden inside a photo
Sending it to someone privately
The safest way to send private pictures or files this way:
- Send the photo as a file: an email attachment or a file-sharing link.
- Send the password separately, by a different app or in person.
- Never through a messaging app or social media. They re-compress photos, which destroys what's hidden inside.
Things to know
- The result is a new, larger file. It's lossless, so the picture looks identical, but it isn't the original file and it's bigger than it. Free accounts also resize the cover to at most 2,048 px on its longest side (videos to 640 px at 24 frames a second).
- Keep a backup and remember the password. Without them, the files can't be recovered. That's the point.
- Your obligations don't change. Hiding a file doesn't change any privacy, records or disclosure duties you have.
Why this works
Kenneth Springer explains how in How to hide a file inside a photo without changing how it looks.
