How to show someone one photo without them scrolling through the rest

You are at a family dinner and want to show your aunt the picture of the new puppy. You hand over the phone. She swipes left, once, out of friendliness. The next photo is not one you planned to share.

It happens to nearly everyone, and it is easy to prevent.

What to do now

Hold the phone yourself when you can. Most of the time the simplest answer is to turn the screen toward them and keep your hand on it. Everyone understands, and nothing needs setting up.

Lock the phone to one screen. Both platforms have a single-app mode. You turn it on once in Settings, and from then on you can start it in a few seconds.

• iPhone: guided access. Turn it on in the Accessibility settings, open the photo, then start a session with the button shortcut that settings describe. The exact shortcut and the way you end a session depend on your iOS version, so read the line under the setting. Ending it asks for your passcode or face or fingerprint unlock. Guided access also lets you switch off touch for the whole screen.
• Android: app pinning. On most phones, turn it on under Security or Security & location, in Advanced settings. Then open the photo, open your recent apps view and choose Pin from the app’s icon menu. To leave, you swipe up and hold, or hold two buttons, depending on your navigation style, and you are asked for your PIN, pattern or password. Menus differ a little between phone makers.

Pinning keeps them in one app, but they can still swipe between photos inside it. To stop swiping, make a one-photo view: crop a screenshot into a new picture, or use a presentation or slideshow mode that shows a single image.

Or send the single photo. If they want a copy anyway, send just that one. Before sending, check whether location is attached to the photo, and remove it if you don’t want it shared.

Move the sensitive ones out of reach. The real fix is to keep photos you would never hand over somewhere that a swipe can’t reach. Your phone has options: the Hidden album on iPhone, a locked folder or private space on Android. They have limits, covered in our guides on hiding photos on iPhone and on Android.

What doesn’t help

• Hoping they won’t swipe. Most people do, and mean no harm.
• A screen lock. It protects the phone while it is locked. Once you unlock it and hand it over, the lock is out of the picture.
• Putting photos in a “hidden” spot you then forget about. Some hidden folders are still reachable with one more tap, or open when you unlock the phone.
• Deleting the photos just for the evening. You may lose them, or find them again in the deleted folder.

Where a vault helps

A vault app keeps the photos that matter apart from your everyday gallery. In Silo, photos and videos are encrypted on your phone and open behind their own PIN, passphrase or face or fingerprint unlock. When you hand someone your phone to look at the puppy, the album they swipe through no longer holds the private ones. You can also turn on auto-lock and the app-switcher cover, so if you leave the app they don’t see its contents.

Silo has its own lock, so it won’t open for someone who picks up your phone while it is locked. But if you open it and then hand your phone over, they can look inside. Lock it again first, or keep the phone in your hand.