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Photo encryption iOS app soft launched, would you use it?

It all started with .zip archive under password, for years I was using it to store personal photos, but it never worked well on mobile, so I started looking for apps. Requirements were simple:

  • Solid local encryption
  • Lifetime purchase option
  • Photos should be stored on my device, no 3rd party servers
  • Good mobile UX

That’s not unreasonable expectations in my opinion, but I didn’t find anything close,

There a roughly 2 extremes

One, with nice UX, subscription and weak encryption promises. We’ll store your data on our server and encrypt it hard, they say

Other, like Cryptomator with solid encryption, but with the goal more towards desktop UX. photos are not decrypted on the fly, click, decrypt, go back

Both options were not a good enough fit for me, so I started working on the prototype.

Compromises should be made

I knew there should be a reason why there is no such an app. So I started with simple constrains. It’ll work on apple platform only and will utilize whatever best tools iOS and macOS has. Performance and security are critical, so I don’t want to deal with cross-platform problems.

And fast-forward 16 months I have an app which is fully written on SwiftUI has simple yet solid encryption

You enter password → password sha256 hash generates → chachapoly private key generates based on hash → files decrypted

Password is not stored anywhere, files are either local or in iCloud, no limit on server space, since there is no server and hacker need to steal both your files and your password to unlock it, you can check it here https://safespace.is/


What do you guys think? Would you use it? Or did I build an app to solve non-existing issue?

on November 30, 2021
  1. 2

    Hey 👋

    I like it… I think there’s probably a market for people that want to keep there “private/personal” photos locked up tightly.
    Once it got traction it might start to market itself. Or build a sharing/sending feature with a one time unlock code… You could market it to that audience but you’d need to be careful/subtle, especially on iOS AppStore, I think. Then again, Apple’s supposedly all about privacy so… who knows 🤷‍♂️

    I’d put a price on it, say, $3.99 and play on peoples fears about having their candid shots seen by someone they didn’t want seeing them. Eg. Their mum looking in the hidden photos album on their iPhone. Shouldn’t be hard to do IMO. 👍

    HTH

    1. 1

      We had our chunk of problems with Apple, it took us 14 different versions before they allowed to release in the App Store! Thank you for feedback, appreciate it! I’m thinking between in app purchases where you can store photos locally for free, and unlock iCloud for small price or just make a paid app