This is the privacy feature I want to see on Google Photos

One swipe too many can result in an awkward conversation. That’s the issue I face whenever I hand someone my phone to show them my latest vacation pics in Google Photos they asked to see.

I don’t have any super-sensitive images in my Photos account, but I have plenty I don’t want anyone to see. Whether it’s my fitness progress pictures or that weird mark on my body I had to send to my doctor, some things are for my eyes only.

I recently gave a Google Photos alternative called Ente a spin, mainly because it offers end-to-end encryption Google’s app lacks. But I unexpectedly discovered a great privacy feature during my testing that solves my issue completely, and now I want to see it make its way to Google Photos — and every other gallery app for that matter.

Ente has a feature called Guest View that basically locks an image of choice on the screen. All I have to do is long-press a photo, tap the Guest View option that appears, and then hand my phone to the person I want to show the photo to.

That person can then do nothing else in the app but view the image. Swiping left or right does nothing, and tapping the back button brings up the lock screen, preventing them from seeing anything else.

This privacy feature also works with albums. Just open up an album, tap the three-dotted icon in the top-right corner, and select Guest View. The person with your phone can swipe through all the images in that gallery and can’t see anything else since the lock screen shows up as soon as they hit the back button.

Additionally, I can also select specific images from my feed that aren’t in the same gallery and select Guest View, so regardless of which pictures I want to show, Ente has me covered.

Currently, the only way to make sure no one sees more than you want on Google Photos is to share an album or specific images. That does solve the problem, but it’s too much friction in a lot of cases despite its simplicity, especially when only showing a single photo to multiple people in the room.

Guest View is something I think would come in handy often for a lot of people. Privacy is important, so I really hope Google is taking note and will bring this feature to Photos somewhere down the line. Photos is the de facto gallery app most Android users have on their phones, and we would all benefit from a simple privacy feature like this.

While Guest View prevents people from seeing more than you want them to within the app, they can still snoop on your phone regardless. They can easily close the app and have access to just about anything. Ente’s app is excluded from this, since even if they clear it from memory and open it again, the lock screen shows up. But they are free to explore your phone and all the data it holds otherwise, so it’s not a bulletproof solution for those who are truly privacy-focused.

This is not Ente’s fault, though. As far as I’m aware, a third-party app can’t prevent itself from being closed or stop someone from navigating away — that’s an OS-level restriction on Android. However, Android does have a built-in feature called App Pinning that solves this. It locks your phone to a single app, and the only way to exit is by entering your PIN or using biometrics. Pairing that with Ente’s Guest View gives you the full lockdown experience — no swiping to other photos and no snooping around your phone.

To enable App Pinning, head to Settings > Security & Privacy > More security privacy > App Pinning (the exact path varies by manufacturer — search for “pinning” in Settings if you can’t find it). Toggle it on and make sure you also enable the option to require your PIN or pattern before unpinning. Then, open Ente and activate Guest View, open the Recents screen, tap the app icon at the top of Ente’s card, and select Pin. It’s not as complicated or time-consuming as it sounds once the App Pinning option is switched on, but it does require a few taps.

That’s my take, and now I want to hear yours. How much do you actually care about a privacy feature like this, and would you use it regularly? Let me know in the poll above and share your thoughts in the comments.