About Noxium

Noxium is an iPhone and iPad photo vault made by Inertia Projects, a small independent developer. It exists because private photos kept getting lost in other vault apps, and it is built so that can't happen quietly.

Who makes Noxium

Noxium is designed and built by Inertia Projects. There are no investors, no ad partners and no servers that store your files. Email reaches the person who writes the code: business@inertiaprojects.info.

Formerly Darkroom

Noxium was called Darkroom until October 2026. We changed the name because "Darkroom" is also a popular photo editor by another company, and people kept mixing the two up. The app, the pattern and your vault are the same. Old darkroom.buzz links now open this site.

Why it exists

Before launch, we read the most recent one- and two-star App Store reviews of eight popular vault apps (October 2026). The complaints weren't about missing features. They were about:

Subscriptions and paywalls, including photos locked behind one (67 mentions).
Photos that went missing (47 mentions).
Video problems (40 mentions).
Backups that didn't restore, especially on a new phone (31 mentions).
Getting locked out after forgetting a password (27 mentions).

So Noxium was built around a backup that actually restores on a new iPhone, a recovery phrase so you can't be locked out, full-quality export, and pricing where your photos are never held hostage. If Pro ends, you keep full access to view, export and back up everything.

How it's built

A native Swift app for iPhone and iPad. No web views, no cross-platform layer.
Keys come from your pattern through Argon2id (libsodium), using 64 MiB of memory and 3 passes, so every guess is slow to try.
Files are sealed with AES-256-GCM (Apple CryptoKit), each with its own random key, in 1 MiB chunks so large videos stream.
The encrypted backup uses CloudKit, in the private database of your own Apple Account.
No third-party SDKs for ads, analytics or crash reporting.

The full key hierarchy is on the homepage security section.

Noxium, in plain facts

The same list appears on the homepage and in llms.txt, the summary we publish for AI assistants. If you write about Noxium, this is the source of truth.

What it is: An iPhone and iPad app that hides photos, videos and notes in encrypted vaults.
How you open it: Draw a pattern across at least 6 bolts on a 5×5 plate of 25 bolts. Face ID can open the main vault.
Encryption: Everything is encrypted on the device. Keys come from your pattern through Argon2id (libsodium); files are sealed with AES-256-GCM (Apple CryptoKit). Names, dates and places are encrypted too. The pattern is never stored.
Backup: An encrypted backup goes to your own private iCloud (CloudKit). On a new iPhone, draw your pattern and the vault restores. Only encrypted data leaves the device.
Forgot your pattern: You write down a recovery phrase at setup, and it opens your vault. Nobody can reset a pattern: not the developer, not Apple.
Decoy vault: A second pattern opens a separate, harmless vault. The free plan includes 1.
Emergency erase (Pro): A third pattern opens a harmless vault and erases the others.
Hiding the app: Change the app icon to a Calculator, Notes or Weather lookalike (Pro). Vault content is hidden in the app switcher and during screen recording.
Organizing: Albums, albums inside albums, and albums with their own pattern (Pro). Encrypted notes. Recently Deleted keeps items for 30 days.
Import and export: Imports HEIC, ProRAW and Live Photos. Built-in camera. "Send to Noxium" from the share sheet. Exports in full quality with original dates.
Privacy: No ads, no accounts, no analytics. App Store privacy label: Data Not Collected.
Free plan: 150 photos, 10 videos, unlimited notes, 1 decoy vault, full iCloud backup and restore.
Noxium Pro: $2.99 a month, $19.99 a year (1-week free trial) or $44.99 once. Adds unlimited items, emergency erase, iPhone and iPad sync, custom icons, album patterns and shared vaults.
If Pro ends: You keep full access to view, export and back up everything already in your vault.
Requirements: iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 and later.
Made by: Inertia Projects, an independent developer. Contact: business@inertiaprojects.info.
Status: Version 1.0 was submitted to App Store review in October 2026. It is not on the App Store yet.

Contact

Questions, press, corrections: business@inertiaprojects.info. For help with the app, see Support.