Keep a way back.

Home shows your greeting rather than a list of vaults. Tap Unlock an Ego, enter the full passcode for the vault you want, then tap Unlock. Its name appears only after authentication. New vaults and passcode changes or resets use six digits, including leading zeroes if you choose, and must differ from your other vault codes. Existing development vaults with 8–12-digit passcodes still accept their original full codes.

No. Choose any name or alias; it only changes an ordinary local display preference. Edit or clear it under Call me in Settings. It can appear before you unlock and is separate from vault names and passcodes. Ego does not upload it or use it to recover a vault.

On the unlock screen, choose Use recovery key. Local recovery needs the original iPhone and its device-only key. If you instead have a completed encrypted iCloud backup, open Settings → iCloud Backup and restore it with its recovery key, including on a replacement iPhone signed into the same iCloud account. Cloud restore creates a local vault and never overwrites an existing one. Without the necessary key and a supported copy, Chreia Labs cannot recover access. Do not delete the app while trying to recover. Older development vaults need one successful original-device passcode unlock before device-bound recovery or new backup creation.

Keep the complete key securely outside Ego, separately from backups and shared or compromised accounts. Local recovery and manual exports also need the original device key. A completed portable iCloud backup and its recovery key can restore on another iPhone; anyone who obtains both can read the archived vault. The six-digit passcode alone cannot decrypt a cloud backup, and Chreia Labs cannot replace a lost recovery key.

Export an encrypted backup from your unlocked vault and save it to a location you control. Keep the recovery key separately. Open Settings → Restore from Backup to restore on the original iPhone while its device-only key remains available. Saving that manual file in iCloud Drive does not make it portable. Older portable development backups are no longer accepted; previously exported copies cannot be revoked. Unlock the original vault and create a new supported backup.

With an active Alter Ego Weekly, Monthly, Annual, or Lifetime entitlement, open an unlocked vault’s Ego options → iCloud Backup. Enable backup for that vault and confirm you saved its recovery key outside Ego. It is off by default, separate for each vault and iCloud account, and purchasing Alter Ego does not enable it. Names, file details, contents and thumbnails are encrypted before upload to your private CloudKit database. Backups use your own iCloud storage quota; no storage allowance is included.

Keep Ego open until the server-confirmed completed date appears. Backup attempts run after you unlock or change an enabled vault while Ego is active, or when you tap Back Up Now. Locked vaults are not archived. Each vault has one current snapshot; successful uploads replace it. There is no version history or multi-device merge, so use one source device per vault. Locking or leaving the app cancels local work, but a submitted request may still finish. A queued attempt or error does not prove completion; refresh the list. Check connectivity, device space and iCloud quota if an attempt fails.

A completed encrypted iCloud backup and its saved recovery key can restore on a replacement iPhone signed into the same iCloud account. Open Settings → iCloud Backup, choose Restore, enter that key and choose a new six-digit code. Downloading, restoring, and deleting existing iCloud backups remain available after Alter Ego expires, without the free-vault limit blocking cloud restoration. Expiry stops new uploads. Manually exported device-bound backups still need their original iPhone. No completed cloud copy or no recovery key means Chreia Labs cannot recover it for you.

No. Turning backup off retains saved cloud copies. Deleting a local vault or uninstalling Ego does not delete its iCloud backup. Open Settings → iCloud Backup and explicitly choose Delete for that cloud copy; this also disables automatic backup for it on this iPhone. Other opted-in devices can upload again, and downloaded or exported copies cannot be revoked. Refresh after an interrupted deletion to check the result.

With any active Alter Ego plan, unlock an Ego and open Ego options → Secure Smart Search → Enable for this Ego. Purchasing does not enable it. Keep Ego open and that vault unlocked while search is prepared; new content is added automatically. Try words visible in your files or everyday objects. Results follow the current folder and content type. Basic partial filename and folder search stays free while preparation is incomplete and after paid access ends.

No media is sent to a search service. Vision recognises objects, scenes and visible text on your iPhone, extracts supported PDF/text content and checks sampled video frames. People or face detection finds presence, not a person’s name or identity. There is no large language model or Spotlight index. Recognition can be wrong or incomplete, and unsupported or very large files retain filename search. The app and iOS process readable content during analysis; encryption protects saved originals and derived search data at rest, not a compromised device.

Spoken words in videos & audio is off by default. Enable it separately in Secure Smart Search. A supported device/language and an installed Apple on-device model are required. If needed, use Download on-device speech model; it requests Apple’s language assets without sending your media. Apple manages and updates the installed assets. Ego never falls back to cloud transcription or captures your microphone. Unsupported speech leaves visual and filename search available. Speech coverage is limited to the first audio track, at most 30 minutes, and the item’s remaining processing/text budget. Turning speech off excludes saved transcripts from results.

Open Secure Smart Search in the unlocked Ego. Clear search data disables it and removes its derived encrypted records without deleting original photos, videos or files; clearing remains available without a paid plan. Turning a search setting off alone retains the encrypted cache. Rebuild search data prepares it again with your saved speech setting while Alter Ego access is active. Search records are excluded from backups and need preparing again after restore. Locking or leaving pauses preparation; return, unlock and keep Ego open to resume. Content search pauses after paid access ends, while existing vaults, originals and free filename search remain accessible.

Ego does not give Apple or Chreia Labs its app decryption keys, passcodes or recovery keys. Apple hosts optional cloud ciphertext and can observe the iCloud account, opaque identifiers, backup counts, sizes, update times and service activity. Current vault names and file metadata are encrypted at rest, but filesystem and traffic metadata remain observable. The app and iOS process readable content during use; a compromised app or device is outside this protection. Earlier plaintext metadata copies cannot be retroactively erased. There is no Ego account, advertising or analytics.

They may be. Imported items can also exist in Photos, Files, other apps, recently deleted folders, and device backups. Importing into Ego does not delete those originals. Manage outside copies separately; a vault protects the copy stored inside Ego.

Ego is in development for iPhone with iOS 26 or later. A public App Store release has not launched yet. Encrypted iCloud backup remains in development and has not been publicly released. For product and privacy questions, contact theteam@chreialabs.com using the link below. Never send your vault passcode, recovery key, or private files.