Screenshot protection on iPhone: what apps can and can't block
Updated · By THEORIST LLC, the company that makes Hushtrove
iPhone apps can't simply switch screenshots off. Apple's developer documentation describes a notification that an app receives after a screenshot "is taken", and a property that tells an app when its screen is being recorded, mirrored or sent over AirPlay, so it can hide content S1 S2. Some apps, Hushtrove included, go further and make their screens come out black in screenshots and recordings. No app can stop someone photographing the screen with another camera.
What an app can and can't do
| How the screen is captured | What an app can do |
|---|---|
| Screenshot | Be notified afterwards: the notification "posts after the screenshot is taken" S1. Some apps also arrange their screens so screenshots come out blank. |
| Screen recording | Notice it while it's happening and hide or pause content. Apple suggests an app "observe this property and optionally take an appropriate action … to prevent the capture of your content" S2. |
| Mirroring or AirPlay | The same property covers mirroring and AirPlay streaming S2. |
| Protected video (FairPlay) | iOS itself blacks out FairPlay-encrypted video in recordings, mirroring and AirPlay, though not its audio S2. |
| The app switcher | Show a blank cover instead of the last screen when you swipe between apps. |
| Another phone or camera | Nothing. The screen is just light. |
Why a notification isn't protection
Some apps tell the other person when you take a screenshot. That's a social deterrent: by the time the app knows, the screenshot is already in the Photos app. For photos you keep private, the useful question is whether the screenshot shows anything at all.
Built-in iPhone options
The Photos app has no setting to blank screenshots of your own photos. What iOS does offer is control over who can open them: the Hidden collection and Recently Deleted lock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode S3, and you can lock any app, Photos included, so it needs Face ID to open S4. When you lend your phone, Guided Access keeps the other person inside one app S5.
How to check an app's screenshot protection
- Open the app and go to a screen with a photo on it.
- Take a screenshot: press and release the side button and the volume up button at the same time S6.
- Start a screen recording S7, open the same screen, then stop it.
- Look at both in Photos. If you can see the photo, the app doesn't hide it from capture.
- Delete the test screenshot and recording, then empty Recently Deleted.
Hushtrove's Screenshot Shield
In Hushtrove, our app, Screenshot Shield is on by default. The app's own screens, including the lock screen, come out black in screenshots, screen recordings and screen mirroring, not just the photos. A few things aren't covered, and the app lists them in Settings › Screenshot Shield: system sheets such as the share sheet and the photo picker, documents opened in Quick Look, a video playing in full screen and, while VoiceOver or Switch Control is running, everything except photos, videos and PDFs. The app switcher shows a blank cover. You can turn the shield off in Settings › Screenshot Shield if you ever need to capture the screen.
What it can't do: stop someone photographing your screen with another phone, or reading over your shoulder. Copies you deliberately share or save out of the vault are ordinary files again. And a screenshot you took somewhere else before a photo was in the vault isn't affected.