Photok: an encrypted photo vault for Android, in two builds

A vault, not a gallery

Photok is a private photo vault for Android that hides photos and videos using strong AES-256 encryption. The framing matters: it is not a gallery with a locked tab, it is a separate encrypted store, and the files are encrypted locally with only decryption in memory while the app is in use. No cloud upload is required, and the stated privacy philosophy is that the app is open source, ad-free and developed by the author, Leon, together with public volunteers. The audience is specific. It is for people who want to keep media on their own device under encryption they understand, without handing a copy to a server they do not control, and it is deliberately not aimed at people who want automatic backup of their whole camera roll to a cloud account. Everything the app does, it does locally, and the features are built around that constraint: an encrypted gallery, an option to hide the app icon, fingerprint unlocking, and encrypted backups the user creates and restores themselves.

The import and export flows are where the risk sits

The feature list is short enough to read as a workflow. You import photos and videos from your gallery, organise private media into albums, and share media directly into the vault from other apps. You can export files at any time, and you can create and restore encrypted backups. Two of those features deserve more attention than the rest, because both are where a vault application can surprise you. The first is the option to automatically delete the original files after import, which is what makes the vault a genuine hiding place rather than a second copy, and which also means an import that goes wrong is not obviously recoverable from the gallery. The second is the encrypted backup, which along with the export feature is how your media gets out of the app onto something you control. The vault itself decrypts in memory while it is in use, so the exported file and the backup are the moments when plaintext exists on disk outside the encrypted store, and that is the part to think about before you use the delete-original option on your only copy.

One app, two builds, and the difference is telemetry

Photok is distributed in two variants, Google Play and FOSS, where FOSS means F-Droid, GitHub and IzzyOnDroid. The core app is identical, and some features differ because of platform requirements and privacy expectations. The table is specific. Telemetry is enabled by default on the Play build and can be disabled in settings, while on the FOSS build it is disabled by default and can be enabled in settings. The opt-in prompt is shown once after the first unlock on the FOSS build and not shown at all on the Play build. In-app review is requested after usage milestones on the Play build and is not available in the FOSS build. Photok Pro, an optional add-on that unlocks additional features and supports ongoing development, is available on the Play build and not on the FOSS build. The readme explains the FOSS default with a reason worth quoting, since F-Droid flags apps that transmit data without explicit opt-in as having the Tracking anti-feature, and no data is ever transmitted unless the user has actively opted in. So the same application behaves differently depending on where you got it, which is a decision you have to make deliberately.

The FOSS build is the product that stays free

Photok Pro is described as an optional add-on for the Google Play version that unlocks additional features while supporting ongoing development, and the readme is explicit that the FOSS build will stay true to its name and continue to be free open source software. The promise that comes with it has three parts: no ads, no payments, and fully open source under the same Apache 2.0 licence. This is the part of the project that makes it worth reading carefully rather than skimming, because a paid add-on in a store build and a free build elsewhere is exactly the arrangement that lets some projects fund themselves, and the licence and the source stay the same either way. A related project is listed as a companion: RecWare-Photok, which the readme lists under Related Tools.

The encryption is documented in the repository

Two things in the tree tell you how seriously the project takes its central claim. There is an ENCRYPTION.md file at the root, and there is an adr directory for architecture decision records, next to the app, core and pro source modules. For an app whose entire value proposition is that your files are encrypted with AES-256 and never uploaded, publishing the details is not optional politeness, it is the feature. A reader who wants to know what the key is derived from, how the vault is unlocked, and what the encrypted backup format is can read it rather than trusting a marketing line, and the decision records capture the reasoning behind choices that would otherwise be invisible in the code. The build system matches the shape of the project, with Gradle files at the root, a build.gradle.kts, settings.gradle.kts and gradle.properties, and the gradle wrapper checked in, plus fastlane for the store metadata, which is where a Gemfile and a .ruby-version come from. There is also a RELEASING.md, a CONTRIBUTING.md and an AGENTS.md.

Analytics, stated plainly

Photok can use minimal privacy-friendly analytics to improve stability and user experience, and the readme says the analytics are never used for advertising or cross-app tracking. The word minimal is doing some work there, and the way to judge it is the defaults rather than the promise. On the FOSS build telemetry is off until you turn it on, and the opt-in prompt appears once after the first unlock, so the informed choice is the default. On the Play build telemetry is on until you turn it off, which is the choice most store apps make and which is why the variant difference matters. The fact that the data is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking is a narrower guarantee than it first appears, since it says nothing about what is collected for stability diagnostics, and the honest way to read it is that this is a crash and usage reporting layer with a stated purpose rather than a marketing instrument. Anyone who wants no telemetry at all has a build that defaults that way.

Fifteen languages, half of them machine translated

Photok is available in fourteen languages, and the readme is candid about how that happened. The initial texts were hand picked for English and German, and the rest are machine translated, with contributors from the community reviewing and fixing those machine translations on demand. The contributing guide has a translations section for people who want to help, which is the standard arrangement for a project of this size and a fair one: the community does the language work, the maintainer does the core. The interesting part for a user is the direction of the effort. German and English are the reference, so if you write in either and find an awkward string, that is a string you can improve, whereas in the machine translated languages the first fix tends to come from a native speaker rather than from the original author. The releases move quickly, with 3.7.0 published on 2026-10-19, 3.6.3 on 2026-10-16 and 3.6.2 on 2026-10-12, and the last push was on the same day as the newest release. The copyright runs from 2020 to 2026 and the licence is Apache 2.0.

Editorial conclusion

Photok is a good fit if you want to keep sensitive photos and videos on your own phone under encryption you can read about, and the FOSS build is the one to choose if you do not want an app that transmits anything until you say so. It is the wrong choice if you want your media backed up somewhere you control without the app, if you need a desktop companion, and it is the wrong choice if the import workflow of automatically deleting the original is not something you want. Before you install, read ENCRYPTION.md and the architecture decision records, and decide which build you want, because the telemetry default and the availability of the Pro add-on differ between them.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. leonlatsch/Photok on GitHub
2. License: Apache-2.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases