MacMost Now 880: iOS Guided Access

Use Guided Access if you need to hand off your iOS device to a young child, and you want to keep them in a single app. This prevents them from accidentally exiting the app or putting the device to sleep. It can also be used to stop others from accessing more than one app on a device when it is used as a demonstration machine or kiosk.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary with MacMost Now. On today's episode let me show you how to use Guided Access on iOS.
Suppose you want to give your iPad to a child or even another adult and not have them exit the app that is currently running. This is typical if you have young children around and they want to play a game but you don't want them to then inadvertently exit the app and get frustrated trying to get back in or perhaps exit the app and start messing with your other stuff.
Well you can lock somebody in an app temporarily and then get out of it using a passcode with Guided Access.
Now it is inside Accessibility Controls. Let's take a look at it on the iPad but the same thing works on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
So to turn on Guided Access go into the Settings app. Under Settings go to General and then scroll down to Accessibility. Under there you will find Guided Access under Learning. Let's go into it here and you simply turn it on. 
The options you have are you can set a Passcode. So you want to set something that you know you won't forget. Then one option is to enable a screen sleep. So that allows them to press the sleep button at the top of the device to put it to sleep. You may want to have that off if you are handing it to a small child and you don't want them to get frustrated if they accidentally hit that button and put the device to sleep.
So now that it is on how do you use it? Well let's go into an app because the entire idea is to run a single app. So let's go into one of my recent games here Push Around which is one you might give to a kid to play and you don't want them messing with the rest of your iPad.
So they are in it and they can use it. All you need to do to turn on Guided Access is to triple click the Home button. So the Home button is a physical button on the bottom of your device. You have to push it quickly three times and then you get the Guided Access screen.
From here what you need to do is to select some more options. Now you can see the hardware buttons are always off to the bottom left but you can decide whether or not to allow them to have Touch, Motion, both or neither really if it is something maybe you want to hand them your device and they can watch a video. But also they might be some games and such where you only want to limit them to one or the other type of motion.
For instance a motion detection rather than touch for a game for a young toddler might be a possibility. So after you have chosen those options you hit Start and then Guided Access is started.
Now there is nothing I can do to exit this app. None of the gestures to go between apps will work. I can't press the sleep button, it won't work. If I hit the Home button I simply get a message saying I need to triple click it. If I triple click it then I get the Passcode and I have to enter in that same code that I entered in in order to go back to the Guided Access screen.
From here I still have to take action because I either have to hit Resume to go back to Guided Access or at this point I can End. Now I am back to normal. I can hit the Home button and escape the app.
So you can see how Guided Access can be very useful if you have kids. It is also useful in other odd situations. For instance if you have an iPad available kind of as a kiosk in a shop so they can search inventory in a store or something else, then having Guided Access turned on and locked to whatever app you are using could be very useful.
Here is one advanced feature of Guided Access. Let's pretend for instance that there is an exit button at the upper left hand corner of this app that allows me to quit the app and you don't want them to be able to hit that. Let's turn on Guided Access by pressing the button three times and one of the things I do in addition to those switches there at the bottom is I can tap and drag on the screen to select an area.
So let me, for instance, select this area here of the screen. I can select even maybe another area of the screen here. You can see how it is kind of grayed out and this is an area that you will not be allowed to tap. So for instance let's do it down here as well. So those buttons can't be tapped. You can remove other ones like that. Now if I were to start Guided Access you can see it's even got those bands through the bottom left and I can't hit any of those buttons. Tapping doesn't work. But the play button to the right works just fine.
There is a look at Guided Access for iOS. Hope you found this useful.
Until next time this is Gary with MacMost Now.

Comments: 3 Responses to “MacMost Now 880: iOS Guided Access”

Chris

11 years ago

Is this an option only on newer models? The reason I ask is I have version 5.1.1 iPad, an older model, but have not been able to find that option in my settings. Thanks.

Gary Rosenzweig

This example is using iOS 6. I believe you need iOS 6 for this, yes.

patrice Dupuis

I've been looking for an app that does just that. Did'nt find any. But it was just incude in the IOS. Thanks for this information Gary

Comments Closed.

MacMost Now 880: iOS Guided Access

Comments: 3 Responses to “MacMost Now 880: iOS Guided Access”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information