Canonical: https://hideroom.app/how-it-works Title: How it works Updated: 2026-10-24 How it works # One pattern, one private room. Follow one photo through Hideroom, from the pattern you draw to a backup only you can open. Nine short steps, at your own pace. 1. [**1**Your pattern](#pattern) 2. [**2**The key](#key) 3. [**3**Locked on your phone](#encrypt) 4. [**4**Your backup](#backup) 5. [**5**Only you](#keys) 6. [**6**More rooms](#rooms) 7. [**7**The wipe pattern](#wipe) 8. [**8**A new phone](#move) 9. [**9**Honest limits](#limits) Step 1 of 9 ### Draw your pattern. Six lights or more, with one turn. Each pattern you make opens its own room, and only that room. 6 lights One turn Drawn on the Rosette: 25 lights in rings, never a dot grid. Step 2 of 9 ### Your phone makes the key. This phone makes a random key for the room. Your pattern, mixed with a secret that never leaves this phone, is what unlocks it. The key is only ever stored locked: on this phone, and in your backup behind your recovery phrase. Your pattern This phone’s secret Your room’s key Opens this room only Made once, on this phone. Your pattern unlocks it. Step 3 of 9 ### Everything is locked as it comes in. Every photo, video and paper gets its own key and is encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the encryption built into iPhone and Android, before it goes anywhere. File names, dates and places are locked too. A key for every file AES-256-GCM Step 4 of 9 ### Your backup goes to your own iCloud, still locked. Only locked files leave the phone, to your private iCloud (Google Drive on Android, when it ships), never to Hideroom. Hideroom reads back every upload, and opens a sample each week to prove it restores. Your private iCloud Google Drive on Android Only locked files Backed up · verified just now Step 5 of 9 ### Only you hold the key. Hideroom never has your keys, which is what people mean by zero-knowledge encryption. Your pattern and this phone open a room, and your recovery phrase is the only spare. So someone who knows your phone’s passcode can’t see inside your rooms. We can’t either, nor can Apple or Google, and if anyone ever asked us for them, there would be nothing to hand over. You Your pattern, and the only spare: your phrase. This phone A secret that never leaves it. Apple or Google Locked files only. Can’t open them. Hideroom Holds nothing to open or hand over. Step 6 of 9 ### A different pattern opens a different room. Each room has its own key and its own recovery phrase. Nothing on screen says how many rooms there are, and with Pro any extra room can be the decoy you show. Only the room you open ever shows on the phone. Step 7 of 9 ### The wipe pattern. Pro For the day someone makes you unlock. You set it inside the room you’d show, by drawing it twice. > Drawing your wipe pattern opens this room. Straight away, every other room on this phone is erased: its photos and its pattern. Your backup isn’t touched, so you can bring each room back later, on any phone, with its recovery phrase. Anything that wasn’t backed up yet is gone for good. It’s red in the picture only. In the app it looks and feels like any other pattern, and settings never show whether one is set. Your safety comes first: if handing over your phone is the safer thing to do, do that. [What it can and can’t do →](https://hideroom.app/security#unlock) Red here only, so you can see it. In the app every pattern looks the same. Step 8 of 9 ### New phone? Your rooms come with you. Each room has a recovery phrase: nine words Hideroom makes for you, never a paid reset. - **Only the phrase?** Install Hideroom, choose Restore a room and type it. The room comes back from your backup. - **Old phone still with you?** In each room, choose Move to a new phone. Hideroom makes an encrypted move file, you open it on the new phone with that room’s recovery phrase, then draw your pattern. Your iCloud backup Old phone Lost, broken or replaced New phone iPhone now, Android next Your recovery phrase Backed up · verified Step 9 of 9 ### And the honest limits. A drawn pattern on its own is weak, so it never works alone. And if you forget both your pattern and your recovery phrase, nobody can open that room, including us. That’s the point, and it’s why the phrase matters. [See the honest numbers →](https://hideroom.app/security#strength) Your pattern on its own Weak Your pattern plus this phone’s secret, at the lock screen Strong Your recovery phrase Very strong Forget both your pattern and your phrase, and nobody can open the room. Not even us. ## What happens if… ### You forget your pattern Use the room’s recovery phrase, then draw a new pattern. ### You lose your phone Restore each room with its recovery phrase. It comes back from the encrypted backup in your own iCloud. ### You forget both Nobody can open the room, including us. That’s the point, and it’s why the phrase matters. **Free:** one private room with 100 photos and documents plus 10 videos, with backup and export included. **Pro:** more rooms (decoy rooms included), no limits, the wipe pattern, private icons and slideshow. [See pricing](https://hideroom.app/pricing) ## Questions people ask ### Is Hideroom zero-knowledge, and what does that mean? Yes, in the sense people usually mean: Hideroom never has your keys. Rooms are encrypted on your phone, the backup holds only locked files in your own iCloud, and there’s no Hideroom account or server holding a copy. The details, with honest numbers, are on the security page. ### Do I need an account? No. There’s no Hideroom account, no email and no sign-in. Your rooms live on your phone, and their encrypted backup lives in your own private iCloud. Hideroom never holds it. ### How many rooms can I make? One on Free. With Pro, as many as you like: each pattern opens its own room, and any extra room can be a decoy. ### What’s a recovery phrase? Nine words Hideroom makes when you create a room. They open that room if you forget the pattern, and on a new phone they bring it back from the encrypted backup in your iCloud. ### Does Hideroom work without internet? Yes. Everything opens on the phone. Backup waits until you’re online again.