If you’re a parent of young children, it’s likely you’ve experienced the annoyance of getting locked out of your smartphone thanks to your kids meddling with it.
But the days of having to wait hours to get back in are a thing of the past, thanks to a little-known iPhone feature.
The feature, called Guided Access, lets you temporarily ‘lock’ the touchscreen, essentially childproofing your iPhone.
Apple explained: “Guided Access limits your device to a single app and lets you control which features are available.
“You can turn on Guided Access when you let a child use your device, or when accidental gestures might distract you.”
Many parents have taken to Twitter in recent months to commend the handy feature.
One user tweeted: “Never understood what the Accessibility Guided Access feature was for until I had a kid and now I use it every single day. Thank goodness for it.
And another joked: “Guided access for iphone is probably the most useful upgrade since my niece.”
Thankfully, the feature is very simple to set up - here’s a step-by-step guide.
How to set up Guided Access
1. To set up Guided Access, go to Settings > Accessibility, then turn on Guided Access.
2. Tap Passcode Settings, then tap Set Guided Access Passcode.
3. Enter a passcode, then re-enter it. From there, you can all turn on Face ID or Touch ID as a way to end a Guided Access session.
How to Start a Guided Access session
1. Open the app you want your child to use
2. If you have an iPhone X or later, triple-click the side button. On an iPhone 8 or earlier, triple-click the Home button
3. If you want parts of your screen to stop responding to touch, use on finger to circle those areas. You can move or resize the circle, or tap the X to remove it.
4. Tap Guided Access, then tap Start
5. To end the session, triple-click the side or Home button, enter your passcode, then tap End.
