iOS 16 will lock deleted and hidden photos away behind Face ID & Touch ID

Ios 16 Features Tiles (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Apple's iOS 16 will block access to Hidden and Recently Deleted albums.
Users will need to authenticate to see photos and videos in those albums.
iOS 16 is set to be made available to everyone this fall and is currently in beta.

Apple's upcoming iOS 16 update will give people added peace of mind by locking their Recently Deleted and Hidden photos and videos behind biometric security. That means that people will need to use Face ID or Touch ID to access them.

With iOS 15 installed, both Hidden and Recently Deleted photos and videos are easily found within the Photos app, and tapping the albums presents everything. That will all change when iOS 16 arrives later this year, with a biometric challenge preventing anyone from seeing inside the albums without first authenticating. A passcode fallback will be offered should that be required, of course.

The Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are locked by default and can be unlocked using your iPhone authentication method: Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.

This is just one of the improvements being made to the Photos app in iOS 16. Users will also benefit from a new duplicate detection system that will help reduce clutter and save storage space, too. Other iOS 16 improvements to the wider operating system include changes to the Mail app and a new Lock Screen experience.

Apple's iOS 16 update will be the best iPhone software to date and we can expect it to ship to the world in or around September. Developers currently have access to the beta 1 release, while a public beta program will kick off next month — although Apple isn't saying when exactly that will happen.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.