Savvy mum reveals genius iPhone trick that ‘locks’ touchscreen while kids use it
A TECH-SAVVY mum has shared her genius iPhone trick, letting you lock the touchscreen without shutting off the display.
It's perfect for when the kids are watching TV – and you don't want them to accidentally close the app or press any buttons. And it even works on the iPad, too.
The feature keeps the screen turned on, but deactivates touch-settings completely.
This is great for youngsters who often like to poke and prod the screen.
It's also perfect for anyone with a cat and an iPad – you can let them play with "virtual fish" apps safely.
The trick was shared by a tech-savvy mum to Facebook, and was quickly shared by thousands.
She wrote: "Those of you with iPhones...if you turn on Guided Access, you can hand your phone to baby when they're watching a show and they' can't hit any buttons!
"It locks it in that app. To turn off guided access, you have to triple click the home button (so it's not easily done)."
Her post earned itself 12,000 likes and has been shared more than 128,000 times.
How to lock iPhone touchscreen – Guided Access
First, you'll need to open the Settings app.
It's the one with an icon made up of cogwheels.
Then scroll down to Accessibility, which is in the section under the General header.
Scroll down to the bottom of the Accessibility page and tap into Guide Access.
Genius iPhone tricks to try today
Here are some of the best...
- Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily
- Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs
- Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete
- Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen (or swipe left to right on an iPhone X), then tap in the bar and type a currency (like $200) and it will automatically covert to your local currency
- Check if you're due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally a battery is considered worn when you're down to 80% capacity. If you're below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple
- Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier
From there, you'll be able to toggle Guided Access on as a feature. You can leave this toggled on safely.
Then whenever you want to lock the touchscreen, you can simply triple-click the Home button quickly.
If you've got a newer iPhone without a Home button, triple-click the side button instead.
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