Security / Decoy vault
What a decoy vault does, and its limits
Short answerA decoy vault is a second, ordinary-looking Vault with its own pattern or PIN. If someone pushes you to open the Vault, you draw the decoy's pattern instead, and they see the pictures you chose to put there. Your real Vault stays locked. It can help in a tense moment, but it's not a guarantee.
Why it exists
Most threats to a Vault are quiet: guessing, or watching. Sometimes it's a person in front of you, asking you to open it. A decoy gives you something to open that isn't your real Vault.
How it works
- You set it up from inside your real Vault, now or later, with a second pattern or PIN. It has to be the same kind and the same grid as your real one, so one unlock screen serves both. It can't match your real one.
- You fill it yourself with a few ordinary pictures. An empty vault looks suspicious, so FirstHour doesn't fill it for you.
- FirstHour checks both when you unlock. Draw the real pattern, and your real Vault opens. Draw the decoy's, and the decoy opens, with its own pictures and its own recovery phrase.
Opening the decoy doesn't delete or change your real Vault. Whoever is looking sees a Vault that behaves like any other.
What FirstHour does so it doesn't stand out
- The files look the same with or without a decoy. A second set of files is always there. With no decoy, it holds random filler that nothing can open.
- It takes the same time. FirstHour always checks both, so the check of your pattern or PIN takes the same time either way.
- The decoy's menu is nearly the same, including its own recovery phrase. It lacks the decoy items.
- The decoy can't be used to test guesses. Wrong tries are counted for both vaults together, and opening the decoy doesn't clear them. Someone made to hand over the decoy's pattern can't use it to get free guesses at the real one.
What it can't do
- It's not a guarantee. Someone who knows FirstHour has decoys could keep pushing, and may not believe the first Vault they see.
- A person who knows FirstHour well could notice. The decoy has no decoy settings and no switch between pattern and PIN of its own, and a real Vault does.
- It doesn't hide FirstHour. The app is on your iPhone, and it shows in the Share menu for anyone using your iPhone.
- It doesn't cover copies elsewhere. If a picture is still in Photos, in iCloud, or in a chat, the decoy does nothing for that copy.
- You have to keep it believable. A decoy with three pictures and no notes, files or videos may not look like a Vault someone has used.
- Some actions delete the decoy and its pictures: choosing "Remove decoy vault", setting up a new decoy, or changing your real lock to a different kind or grid size, such as PIN to pattern or 3×3 to 5×5. That includes doing it through "Forgot your PIN". You can set up a new one afterwards.
- It's no help if someone gets your real pattern, your PIN or your recovery phrase.
If you're ever in real danger, your safety matters more than any picture. Give them what they ask for.
Questions
Where do things go when another app sends them to my Vault?
Into whichever Vault the pattern or PIN you unlock with opens, real or decoy.
Is the decoy encrypted too?
Yes, with its own key and the same encryption as the real Vault, tied to your iPhone's chip where it can be.
Where do I set one up?
In the open Vault. Here are the steps.