With Locked Folders rolling out to more phones and presumably tablets, Android devices are beginning to receive a new Google Photos feature that was previously reserved for Pixel phones, providing them with extra privacy options. Keeping media secure is an important feature and it’s nice to see Google rolling its solution out to more users.
Google Photos is a feature-laden cloud storage service that was previously provided for free. A certain amount of storage is still free, but crossing that threshold now requires a subscription to Google One. Despite the recent change, it is still among the lowest cost options available for storing a library of photos and videos. Naturally, some photos are not meant for public consumption, and an inadvertent share from Google Photos, or a breach of cloud security, could expose a user’s private photos.
According to Android Police, Google is now rolling out its Locked Folder feature to more Android devices. This enhanced privacy control was initially only available to owners of Google’s Pixel series phones. The name describes its function very well, since it adds an album to Google Photos that requires authentication before accessing the contents of the folder. It’s already possible to move photos and videos out of Google Photos to a file folder to prevent backing up to the cloud, but this feature makes it much easier to designate media as private.
How Google Photos Locked Folder Works
When the feature rolls out to an Android owner’s device, a card will appear in the Utilities section of Google Photos’ Library tab, prompting the user to ‘Set up Locked Folder.’ After doing so, it’s easy to move photos and videos to this location. Simply select the items, tap the three vertical dots in the upper left to open the More menu, and then choose ‘Move to Locked Folder’ to copy them over. This will ten result in Google deleting the media from Google Photos in the cloud.
It’s important to note that photos and videos moved to the Locked Folder exist only on that Android phone or tablet and are not stored online. While this saves any concerns about a cloud breach, it does leave backups and transfers between devices as something for the user to sort out. Items in the Locked Folder are also exempt from searches, which is an important detail that Google took into consideration. Although the main value here is securing private photos, which might include personal photos, it can also be useful for any work-related photos of proprietary information and research that might be saved on an Android phone.
