OK, seriously, how did I not know about this?!? I was just bemoaning the fact that there are some great story and flashcard apps for kids but they are always hitting the home button and shutting them down before they are done playing. Or, even worse, they exit their game and wander into your banking app or play a round of Words with Friends for you. Or delete apps altogether. Finally, someone at Apple came up with a solution!
This only works with iOS 6, so if you haven't updated your software yet, do it! Then follow these simple instructions and Ta Da! You have a baby proof phone! You enable the lock with a triple click of the home button, and disable it the same way. You also enter a code to disable, so they can't do the triple click on accident. You can even disable certain parts of the screen so they aren't messing with a game's settings or something. AWESOME!!!
Enabling “Kid Mode” in iOS with Guided Access
As mentioned already, you will need iOS 6 or later to have this feature.
- Open “Settings” and tap on “General”
- Navigate to “Accessibility” and under the Learning section tap on “Guided Access”
- Flip the switch to ON, then tap “Set Passcode” to set a password you’ll use to escape out of Guided Access mode
- Choose whether or not to Enable Screen Sleep, turning it ON will help sustain battery life when the iPad, iPod, or iPhone is left inactive
Now that Guided Access is configured, you can use it to lock the iOS device into any app you want.
Using Guided Access to Lock Into an App
- Launch any app as usual, then triple-click the Home button to summon the Accessibility menu
- Tap “Guided Access” from the menu
- Set the Guided Access rules and swipe areas on the thumbnailed screen to disable certain areas of the screen, choose whether touch input is on or off, and whether motion works
- Tap “Next” to enter Guided Access mode
The iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch is now effectively locked into the current application, and pressing the Home button will no longer leave the app. Sooner or later you’ll surely want to escape out of this mode though, but only those with the passcode set earlier can do so.
Escaping Guided Access in iOS
- Triple-click the Home button and enter the passcode chosen during setup of Guided Access to unlock the device
You’ll now be back to the usual behavior of iOS.
If you’d like to turn off Guided Access completely, just go back to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access > and flip the setting to OFF. You’ll need to enter the passcode again to do so.
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