The iPhone Trick You'll Be Glad To Know When Showing Friends A Photo

Privacy is always a concern when you use your mobile phone. Apart from needing to secure personal information on your handheld device when you accidentally misplace it, you also need to be able to set up your gadget so that you and only you have access to certain apps. The latter is particularly challenging when you hand your cellphone to an acquaintance so they can look at a text message, a photo, a website, or an entry on a social media app, among other things. The person checking out your phone either needs to respect your privacy or, at the very least, rein in their desire to pry and find out more about you.

The iPhone has many accessibility features that let you accomplish additional tasks on top of what they're originally intended for, like keeping your friends honest. They not only help iPhone users who have some visual, hearing, and motor impairments navigate their devices with more ease but also assist non-disabled individuals in doing other tasks more conveniently.

One such accessibility option is called Guided Access. Designed primarily to help easily distracted users stay on one mobile app and only use available functions, the feature prevents the person holding the phone from opening other apps, both accidentally or intentionally. Guided Access is great for letting a younger or a non-tech-savvy older person use your iPhone. It can also be utilized so that anytime you lend your device to other people, they're restricted from looking at anything else on your device apart from the page you intend for them to look at.

Here's how to set up Guided Access once you've updated your iPhone's version of iOS to the latest one:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Scroll down to the General section and hit Guided Access.
4. Switch the toggle next to Guided Access to the on position.
5. Go to Passcode Settings, then select Set Guided Access Passcode.
6. Pick a 4-digit passcode, then re-enter it to confirm. Note that this passcode is different from your iPhone lock screen passcode.

While on the Passcode Settings page, consider enabling Face ID (or Touch ID for older iPhones) as an additional way to end a Guided Access session.

Once the feature is correctly enabled, here's what you can do next:

1. Open the app or page you want to show someone on your iPhone.
2. Before you hand them your device, triple-click on the side button (or the Home button if you have an iPhone model that has one).
3. While on the Guided Access screen, tap Options in the bottom-left corner of the page.
4. Turn off the toggle next to Touch, then hit Done.
5. Tap Start at the top-right corner of the screen.

This will essentially lock the active page in place and prohibit anyone from tapping out of it. To unlock the screen or end the Guided Access session, take the iPhone back, press the side or Home button three times, enter your Guided Access passcode, and tap End in the page's top-left corner. If you enabled Face ID or Touch ID when setting up Guided Access, you'll only need to hit the side or Home button twice for the session to end automatically.

If you try accessing the same page and using Guided Access again, the iPhone will use your previous settings. If you're sharing a video, hit play on it before activating Guided Access. Once it ends, it can't be replayed until you end the session. Finally, Guided Access won't work on the Settings app. If you need to show off something in Settings, have them look over your shoulder or consider recording your screen and sending them the resulting capture.