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Guided Access Turns Your iPhone or iPad into a Sharable Single-App Tool
Adam Engst
Most people seem happy to pass their phones around so dinner companions
can look at pictures, for instance. However, many would not be
comfortable lending their phone to someone for a lengthy period of
time. Our iPhones are just too personal, and while iPads may not
trigger quite such separation anxiety, you probably don't want to let
someone poke around in Messages, Mail, or Photos.
But there are situations where you want someone else to be able to use
your iPhone or iPad for more than a few minutes, generally within only
a single app. During that time, you don't want the device to lock, so
you don't have to worry about sharing your passcode.
I recently encountered such a situation while 'timing' an unusual
Finger Lakes Runners Club race. For our [1]Parallel of Latitude 8-Hour
Endurance Run, we were concerned not with how fast anyone ran, but how
many laps they completed within 8 hours. We used the [2]UltraSignup
app, which is designed for this task. It displays a grid of bib numbers
on the screen, and each time a runner completes a lap, the timer taps
their bib number to increment their lap count. One of our timers
contributed an iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard, which displayed it at a
convenient angle on the table.
Simple enough, but the iPad needed to be dedicated to the task for 8
hours, and multiple people had to be able to use it throughout the day
at a moment's notice. We didn't want its screen to lock, nor did we
want to have to share its passcode broadly. How could we achieve this
and protect the owner's privacy?
The answer is a little-known feature of iOS and iPadOS called [3]Guided
Access. It temporarily restricts the iPhone or iPad to a single app,
which Apple promotes as letting a child use an app without worrying
about what else they might get into. The iPadOS User Guide also
suggests that it could help you stay focused on a task, and I could
imagine it being beneficial for individuals with certain disabilities
who experience unintended app switching. But what I find most
interesting is how it can turn an iPhone or iPad into a single-purpose
device for other people to use.
Apple's instructions are accurate but worthless for giving you a sense
of how to use the feature or answering your inevitable questions. If
you want to try Guided Access, read on for my expanded version.
Set Up Guided Access
In a nod to its role in improving accessibility, Apple put Guided
Access in Settings > Accessibility, under the General section. Once you
turn on Guided Access, you can adjust the following settings:
* Passcode Settings: You can set a passcode that's specific to Guided
Access, which must be entered for it to be turned off. If you don't
do this, you'll turn it off with your regular passcode. (If you set
a Guided Access passcode, your regular passcode won't work for
turning it off.) The main utility here seems to be ensuring that
the other users won't see you type in your passcode.
* Time Limits: The controls here merely let you specify whether
Guided Access will play a sound or speak up when 30 seconds are
left before the session ends. You'll set the actual time limit when
you start the session.
* Accessibility Shortcut: You end a Guided Access session by
triple-clicking the side or top button, but that's also how you
invoke the Accessibility Shortcut. (In Settings > Accessibility >
Accessibility Shortcut, you can set a triple-click to offer a
selection of accessibility settings.) Leave this switch off to
avoid bringing up the Accessibility Shortcut options when you want
to shut off Guided Access.
* Display Auto-Lock: I didn't want the display to lock while we were
timing the race because we had access to power to ensure the iPad
didn't run out. In other situations, you may wish to let the device
turn off its screen to save battery, and you can do that in Display
Auto-Lock. While in Guided Access, you can move past the Lock
Screen without using Face ID or any passcode, so don't be afraid to
let the display sleep.
Start a Guided Access Session
After you've configured the Guided Access, follow these steps to start
a session.
1.
1. Open the app you want to use.
2. Triple-click the side or top button to turn on Guided Access.
If you use it regularly, you can add a Guided Access button to
Control Center and invoke it from there. Apple claims you can
activate Guided Access with Siri, but Siri rejects that
command in both iPadOS 17 and iOS 18.1.
3. If you want to prevent access to a particular area of the
screen, draw a circle around the spot. You can drag the mask
around and use the handles to resize it. Frankly, this seems
useful primarily to a parent trying to keep a kid out of
certain parts of an app. I'd worry that it would block access
to unintended parts of an app or be easily circumvented
through other navigation controls.
4. Tap the Options button in the lower-left corner to change
these settings:
o Side or Sleep/Wake Button: When enabled, this switch lets
the user press the side or sleep/wake button to sleep and
wake the screen, nothing more. If you've set Display
Auto-Lock to Never, turn this switch off.
o Volume Buttons: If you want to prevent the user from
using these buttons to change the volume or trigger other
actions (like taking a photo in the Camera app), turn off
this switch.
o Motion: This switch controls the device's accelerometer
sensor, so it probably needs to be on for games or apps
that can flip from portrait to landscape. Conversely,
turn it off to prevent an app from changing from the
orientation it's in when you start Guided Access.
o Software Keyboards: I haven't thought about alternative
keyboards for years, but if you use any, I'd suggest that
turning off this switch might be best. Software keyboards
could confuse users or reveal information you would
prefer not to share.
o Touch: If you're giving an iPad to a young child and want
to prevent them from doing anything other than watching,
turn off the Touch switch. I could also imagine a
scenario where all input would occur via a keyboard,
trackpad, or other input device.
o Time Limit: Set how long the device should remain in
Guided Access. If you set a sound or spoken warning,
you'll be alerted 30 seconds before, and when the time
runs out, Guided Access puts up a Time Expired notice
across the entire screen, prevents any other interaction
with the app, and requires that you triple-click the side
button to exit. It's probably mostly useful for parents
enforcing time limits on entertainment apps for young
children.
5. Tap Start in the upper-right corner.
It's apparently not possible to take a screenshot of Guided Access;
hence the photo.
For the remainder of the session, use the app as you wish. In my
relatively limited experience, everything works as you'd expect, within
the limitations you've set in the Guided Access options.
Guided Access blocks notifications, so you don't have to worry about
anyone using your iPhone or iPad reading your text messages or being
confused by reminders or other alerts.
Adjust or End a Guided Access Session
As you figure out how you want to use Guided Access, you'll probably
want to adjust some of its options. Regardless, when you're done with
whatever app you've dedicated to it, you'll want to end the session so
you can return your iPhone or iPad to its regularly scheduled
programming. Follow these steps:
1. Triple-click the side button and enter the necessary passcode to
return to the Guided Access setup screen.
2. To adjust the settings, tap Options and make any desired changes.
You can also add or remove areas of the screen you've blocked from
accepting touch input. Tap Resume in the upper-right corner to
continue the session.
3. To end the session, tap End in the upper-left corner.
Let me leave you with one final note. After you set up Guided Access in
an app, it remembers how you've configured the options for future uses.
On subsequent invocations of Guided Access for that app, it skips the
setup screen that lets you block out areas of the screen and set
options, instead triggering Guided Access immediately with your
previous settings. If that's not what you want, triple-click the side
button to return to the setup screen, change the options, and tap
Resume.
I've long known that Guided Access existed (though I recently had to
remind myself that it wasn't called Kiosk Mode). However, in previous
cases where I've thought about using it, I was working quickly in
stressful scenarios like race starts where I didn't trust myself not to
create a situation I'd later regret.
Now that I've thoroughly explored Guided Access and understand how it
works, I anticipate using it more frequently. For instance, I might
have a friend use my iPhone 16 Pro to take photos in Camera+ at a
cross-country race to take advantage of its camera and action shot
capabilities. Or I could imagine letting a young niece or nephew take
pictures at a family gathering with an older iPhone or iPad to keep
them entertained.
Can you think of ways to use Guided Access now that you know what it
can do?
References
Visible links
1. https://fingerlakesrunners.org/race/parallel-of-latitude-2024/
2. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ultrasignup-race-timer/id918861220
3. https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/lock-ipad-to-one-app-ipada16d1374/18.0/ipados/18.0
Hidden links:
4. https://tidbits.com/uploads/2024/10/Guided-Access-Options-scaled.jpg