BurnerCam

The camera for photos that don't need to live forever. Auto-delete on your schedule, nothing on your camera roll, nothing in iCloud. Watch remote included.

Some photos don't deserve to live forever. The broken faucet you're showing the plumber. The rash you want a second opinion on. The parking spot, the Wi-Fi password, the serial number on the back of the router, the whiteboard from a meeting. You need the photo for an hour or a day — not in your camera roll for life, and definitely not synced to iCloud forever.

BurnerCam is a camera built for exactly those photos.

TRULY PRIVATE, BY DESIGN Everything you shoot stays inside BurnerCam, on your device. Nothing is ever added to your photo library. Nothing syncs to iCloud. The app's storage is excluded from device backups and encrypted whenever your phone is locked. BurnerCam uses add-only photo permission, which means it cannot see or read your existing photo library — the only thing it can ever do is add a photo there, and only when you explicitly tap Save to Photos.

EVERY PHOTO IS ON A TIMER Photos and videos delete themselves automatically. You pick the lifespan: 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, a week, 30 days — or never. Every thumbnail shows a live countdown, turning red in the final hour. Want one to last a bit longer? Extend its timer individually without changing the rest. Want one to last forever? Tap Keep and it's pinned — auto-delete never touches it. Deletes are immediate and permanent: no trash, no undo, nothing left behind. That's the point.

Optional reminders can notify you shortly before something expires, with a lead time you choose. The notification is deliberately generic and never shows the photo unless you turn on previews.

KEEP, HIDE, ORGANIZE Three simple tabs: Photos, Kept, and Hidden. Long-press any photo to Keep it (exempt from auto-delete) or Hide it (moved out of the main grid). The Hidden tab can require Face ID on its own, separate from the app lock — so even someone scrolling your snaps can't stumble into it.

GET THINGS OUT, YOUR WAY

• Copy a photo straight to the clipboard and paste it anywhere
• Copy Text in Photo: on-device text recognition pulls serial numbers, Wi-Fi passwords, and whiteboard notes straight to your clipboard
• Share through any app without saving anything
• Save to Photos when you genuinely want one in your library — the single, deliberate escape hatch

A REAL CAMERA, WITHOUT THE CLUTTER All your lenses — ultra-wide 0.5x, wide, telephoto — with tappable lens stops and smooth pinch zoom. Photo and video with sound. A torch button for lining up shots in dark, tight spaces. A self-timer for photos of your own back. Volume-button shutter. Optional grid. No exposure sliders, no filters, no styles — this is a scratchpad, not a photo studio.

APPLE WATCH REMOTE VIEWFINDER Phone wedged behind the sink? Pointed at your own back? The watch app shows a live viewfinder streamed from your iPhone. Tap the shutter for a photo, hold it to record video, turn the Digital Crown to zoom, flip the camera and toggle the flash — all from your wrist. (The BurnerCam app needs to be open on your iPhone; iOS doesn't allow camera capture from the background.)

LOCKED DOWN

• Optional Face ID lock on the whole app
• Separate Face ID gate for the Hidden tab
• Photos blurred in the app switcher
• Panic button: Delete All Unkept, instantly

NO ACCOUNTS. NO ADS. NO TRACKING. BurnerCam collects nothing. There's no account, no analytics, no server, no ads. Notifications exist only as an opt-in expiry reminder you control. Pay once, own it.

Stop letting ten-second photos live on your phone for ten years.