The privacy cover: app switcher, recording and mirroring

Two moments a photo can slip out

The app switcher. When you swipe up to switch apps, the phone shows a small picture of each app as you left it. If you left a vault photo open, that picture would show it to anyone who swipes through your apps.

A shared screen. Screen recording, AirPlay to a TV and screen sharing in a call send everything on the screen to somewhere else. A vault photo opened by habit during a presentation is seen by the whole room.

The cover deals with both.

Covering the app switcher

Sealed locks as soon as you leave it unless you choose a delay, and it covers its contents in the app switcher.

The cover Sealed shows when you leave the app is a window above everything else, so an open photo, note or record is covered too, not only the vault grid.

So the picture in the switcher shows the cover, not the photo, note or record you had open. This works whatever Lock on Exit is set to. Lock on Exit, in Settings under Passcode & Unlock, can lock the vault immediately, after 1 minute or after 5 minutes away.

When you come back after the Lock on Exit delay has passed, Sealed locks behind the cover before it lifts, so the open item isn’t shown for a moment first.

Covering a recorded or shared screen

Sealed covers its contents while the screen is being recorded or mirrored, and that is on by default.

Sealed’s cover follows what iOS reports as a captured screen: screen recording, AirPlay and wired mirroring, and screen sharing.

The cover stays up for as long as the recording or mirroring goes on, and lifts when it ends. You will see the seal instead of your vault, with a line that says why.

The screen-recording cover has its own switch in Settings, under Passcode & Unlock, in the Auto-Lock section. Leave it on unless you mean to show the vault on purpose, for example to record a how-to for yourself.

What it doesn’t cover

• Screenshots. iOS lets an app notice a screenshot, not stop one. Sealed warns you after you take a screenshot while a record’s values are showing, and it does not block screenshots. Screenshots are saved to your photo library automatically.
• A camera pointed at the screen. No app can tell.
• What is on screen before you open the vault. Notifications and the camera roll are outside it. The guide to where private photos still show up lists those places.

Before you share your screen

The cover is a safety net, not a plan. Before a meeting:

1. Lock the vault. Settings has a Lock Now button near the top.
2. Close the apps you won’t need.
3. Turn on a Focus so notifications don’t pop up.

The screen sharing guide goes through the whole checklist.

Faster than leaving

If someone walks up while a photo is open, you don’t need to leave the app to cover it. A shake locks the vault. Sealed can lock when you shake the phone or set it face down. The shake and face-down page explains both gestures.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps keep the app switcher and a recorded or mirrored screen from showing what is in your vault. Sealed covers its contents while the screen is being recorded or mirrored, and that is on by default.

It doesn’t do these things:

• Block screenshots. Sealed warns you after you take a screenshot while a record’s values are showing, and it does not block screenshots.
• Cover other apps. It covers Sealed only; your camera roll is shown as usual. Until you delete them, the originals stay in Photos, outside the vault.
• Work if you switch it off. The screen-recording cover has its own switch in Settings, under Passcode & Unlock, in the Auto-Lock section.