Which apps can see your photos?

Every app you have given photo access can read some or all of your photos, or at least add to your library, and the only reliable way to know which is to look. On iPhone that takes about a minute.

How to check which apps have photo access

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Privacy & Security.
3. Tap Photos.

Apple says this list shows the apps that requested access, and you can turn access on or off for any of them. For photos you can also change the level of access, which is usually the better move than switching an app off completely.

Go through the list one app at a time. For each, ask what it actually does with your photos. A backup app needs your whole library. A chat app needs the one picture you want to send.

What each level of access allows

For some apps, Apple describes three levels: full access to all your photos, access to only the photos you select, or the ability to only add photos. The labels on your iPhone may be worded a little differently.

Limited access, in detail

Apple introduced limited photo access in iOS 14. With it, Apple says, an app “will only be able to fetch assets and resources related to what the user has chosen.” Two details matter:

• It covers every app. Apple says limited access affects all apps that use its photo framework, including apps whose makers never updated them for it.
• It grows on its own. When an app saves new photos while in limited mode, Apple says they are automatically added to the selection that app can see.

Add only

Some apps only need to put pictures into your library, not read it. Apple lets them ask for add-⁠only access. If an app that only saves images asks to read everything, that is a request worth turning down.

The photo picker: sharing a photo without giving access

Many apps let you choose a photo through Apple’s photo picker. Apple says the picker runs outside the app: the app “can’t access the picker directly and not even take screenshots of the picker content,” and only what you select is passed back.

So when an app shows the picker, it gets the photos you tap and nothing else, even if it has no library permission. Since iOS 17, apps can embed the picker inside their own screens, and the embedded version has an Options menu that controls whether captions and location travel with the photo.

If an app asks for full access when all you want is to send one picture, check whether it offers the picker instead.

How iOS warns you about full access

Since iOS 17, iOS gives you two chances to notice full access:

• The full-⁠access prompt shows the number of photos that will be shared and a sample of them.
• The system periodically reminds you when an app has full access to your library.

Treat that reminder as a prompt to review. If you can’t remember why the app needed everything, switch it to selected photos.

What full access means for hidden photos and location

Hidden photos. In Apple’s developer framework, “hidden” is a property of each photo. Requests leave hidden photos out by default, but an app can set an option so that a fetch includes “all assets regardless of their hidden state.” Apple’s documentation does not say whether locking the Hidden album changes this, and does not say whether hidden photos are excluded from the picker. Assume an app with full access may be able to read hidden photos.

Location and other details. Apple says that when Camera has Location Services access, coordinates are embedded in each photo and video. Apple also notes that sharing a photo includes its metadata, such as date, time, location, device and captions. Those details travel with the file unless you turn them off when sharing or the app you send it through removes them.

Photos other people send you. Apple saves photos shared with you in Messages to your library automatically. Once there, every app with full access can see them. To stop it, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Shared with You and turn off Photos.

On Android

Permission screens on Android vary between phone makers, so check your own Settings app. Two Google features change what apps can see:

• Google Photos Locked Folder. Google says items in Locked Folder won’t appear in the Photos grid, search or albums, and “won’t be available to other apps on your device that have access to your photos and videos.” Anyone who knows the device screen lock can open it.
• Private space (Android 15 and later). When private space is locked, Google says its apps are stopped and hidden from the launcher, recent apps, the system photo picker and Settings.

A five-⁠minute review

1. Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos.
2. Move every app that doesn’t need your whole library to selected photos, add only, or off.
3. If you don’t want location in your photos, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera and tap Never.
4. Turn off automatic saving of Messages photos if other people send you pictures you don’t want in your library.
5. For photos no app should be able to read, move them out of your photo library into a separate app that encrypts them with its own key, then delete the originals.