How to share private photos safely from your iPhone

The short answer

Send them encrypted to one person, with an expiry, a limit on how many times they open, and saving turned off. In Pearlin, that’s Share this vault: the person gets one phrase, saves the copy once, and then it’s gone from the server.

What usually goes wrong

Chat apps keep copies on both phones, in backups, and sometimes in the photo library.
Cloud links work for anyone who gets the link, and stay up until someone remembers to remove them.
Email attachments sit in both mailboxes indefinitely.

Send a vault with Pearlin

Put the photos you want to send in a vault of their own. The whole vault is shared, so keep it to just those.
Open the vault, go to Vault settings, and choose Share this vault.
Set when it expires, how many times it opens, Exports off so files can’t be saved out, and Lock on screenshots and recording.
Send the share phrase, a sentence of nine key words, or the link. Sending the phrase another way, such as reading it out on a call, keeps it out of your chat history.

The copy is encrypted on your phone with a key made just for this share. Changed your mind? Use Take back in Shares you’ve sent. Shares nobody has saved are deleted right away.

Receive one

Install Pearlin. Opening a share doesn’t need an account.
On the lock screen, tap Open a shared vault (inside a vault, Join a share), and type the phrase or tap the link.
Draw the vault to keep it in. The share can be saved once, then it’s gone from the server.

Good habits

Use the shortest expiry that works, and one or two opens.
Check that the person saved it, then take back any shares you no longer need.
Don’t send a share phrase and the reason for it in the same message.

What no app can stop

Expiry, open limits and “Exports off” are applied by the other person’s app, and the screenshot lock can’t stop someone photographing the screen with another device. Share only with someone you trust with the photos. More in the security model.