Limit Access to the iPad and iPhone with Guided Access

0:01
In this video, we’re going to take a look at Guided Access on the iPad and iPhone. This is an accessibility option that allows us to lock ourselves into a specific app. Let’s see how this works and why we may want to use Guided Access, we’re first going to look at this on my iPad.

0:21
So what I like to do every night is read, I go over to the books app here, and I read, but my problem is, is I get easily distracted. So as I’m reading, when I get to the end of a chapter, what I might do is go back over to my email, I might go over to the news, CNN or another website that I am reading, I would like to turn that temptation off. The way that I can do that is by locking myself into the books app. Another reason why you may want to use Guided Access, if you have a child or grandchild, you can lock them into a specific app for a specific period of time.

0:59
So how do we do this? Well, it’s pretty simple. All we have to do is go over to our settings app, we first have to set it up. So I’m going to go to my settings app.

1:08
And then I go over to accessibility. Under accessibility, you’re going to see Guided Access, it’s down towards the bottom, if you’re up at the top here, what you’ll have to do is scroll down. So I have guided access here. All I have to do is just tap on this. And then I turn this on, we do have a few options. But it’s really not that complicated. Let’s go ahead and turn this on. Now Guided Access is on. The next thing that I recommend doing is setting a passcode. So what is this passcode? Well, basically, when you’re locked into that app, if you know the passcode, you can get out of that app. So in my case, here, it’s just going to be a little distraction. Of course, I’m going to know what that passcode is. But I’m going to have to type in the passcode to get out of the books app. If you have a child or a grandchild, you do not want to tell them what the passcode is. Otherwise, they’ll be able to get out of the app themselves, you will shortly see what I mean. So let’s first set up a passcode. So I tap on it.

2:07
And I’m going to put in a passcode. So I’m just going to go 1234. And then I type it again, real simple passcode for this demonstration. So again, you do not want to share that passcode you’ll see why shortly, I go back up towards the top here.

2:25
The next thing is time limits, you can set a time limit when you go into Guided Access. This option here does not actually set the time limit, we do that when we go into our Guided Access. What this allows us to do is set if we have an alarm, and if it will speak the time. So it’s more notifications. I’m going to go back, we also have accessibility shortcut, I would recommend turning this on. So I have mine turned on here. And then what I can do is I can set what the display auto lock is this is going to set how long it takes my iPad to automatically locked during a Guided Access session.

3:03
So what I’m able to do is set this for an extended period of time, if I’m in Guided Access, let’s say my iPad automatically goes to sleep after two minutes, that’s typically what it’ll do. What I can do when it’s in Guided Access to say, Don’t go to sleep for 15 minutes, maybe I want to read for 15 minutes. So I would set this for 15 minutes. Now when I’m in Guided Access, it is not going to go to sleep for 15 minutes. So that’s basically all there is to setting it up. So now how do we use it? Well, the first thing you need to do is you need to go into that app. So in my case here, I want to lock myself into the books app. Again, I’m easily distracted, I just want to go into the books app. And that is it. So what I need to do is go into that app first. If you have a child or grandchild and you want to lock them into a specific app, maybe it’s an education app, you have to open up that app first. So I’m going to go to my books app here. And now what I need to do is I need to turn on Guided Access. How do we do that? Well, I set it up as an accessibility shortcut. So now all I need to do is press on the home button three times, or in my case, here, I have a sleep wake button, I have an iPad with face ID. So I press it on the sleep wake button three times. So that’s how we get to our accessibility shortcut. So go 123 And you’re going to see Guided Access, all I have to do is just tap on this.

4:26
And it’s going to lock me into that app. Now how long is it going to lock me into that app? Well, I haven’t set for a minute, where do I set this up? Where do I set up my time limits and things like that. What what we need to do is press in on the sleep wake button or the home button three times again to get to our options. So we turn it on by pressing in on the sleep wake button three times. And to get to our options. We press in on the sleep wake button three times again. So I’m going to go 123 And again, if you do have an iPad with Home buttons, you’ll have to

5:00
do with the Home button. Now I go over to Guided Access.

5:05
I type in that code. Remember, I typed in a code, this is why you do not want your child or grandchild to know what the code is because they’re going to be able to bypass it. So I type in my 1234. That’s my code that I used. And you’re going to see, I can set up my Guided Access here. So now what I’m able to do is go down to the bottom corner here, you’re gonna see options. And with options, what I’m able to do is set if I want to enable the top button, do I want to enable the volume buttons? Do I want to enable the keyboard, so we have different options here that we can turn on and off when we’re in Guided Access, another thing we can do is set a time limit. So you want to lock yourself into reading, or I want to lock myself into reading for 15 minutes, what I would do is I would just swipe up, and then set it for 15 minutes. Now I’m going to be locked into the books app for 15 minutes. I can’t get out of it, because I do know the code. But again, if you’re locking this into a specific app for a child or grandchild, don’t tell them the code, they are not going to be able to get out of that app because they don’t know the code. So what I’m going to do is go up to the top, you’re gonna see we have resume up here in the upper right hand corner, I tap on resume.

6:22
And now I am locked into this app, I can use the app, I can go to my library, I can go to my reading now here.

6:31
I can use this app all I want. But what I can’t do is leave the app, I can’t go to the home screen, I can’t do anything.

6:41
Now if I did want to let’s say I wanted to check my mail, what I need to do is I need to press in on the sleep wake button three times 123. And then I turn off Guided Access. When I do that, it’s going to ask for that code. So I have to type in that code.

7:00
And from here, I can go up to end in the upper left hand corner.

7:06
And now I’m able to leave that app.

7:10
Let’s look at this on the iPhone and works very similar. So I’m looking at my iPhone here.

7:18
And what I need to do is go over to the Settings app. And then we go over to accessibility.

7:25
I swipe up down towards the bottom, you’re gonna see Guided Access,

7:30
I turn it on. From here, I can set my passcode. So let’s go with the same passcode 1234. Again, you do not want to share that passcode.

7:39
And now, I can set if I want to get a notification for time limits if I want to use an accessibility shortcut, which I recommend. And then what the display auto lock is same settings I have for the iPad. So now let’s go over into my books app. So I’m going to find my books app. I have it here. Now, I want to lock myself into this app, I want to make a little bit more difficult for me to check my mail again, I get easily distracted. So all I do is just pressing on the sleep wake button three times if you have an iPhone with a home button, you would press on the home button three times. So I precedent three times 123 You’re going to see Guided Access at the bottom here. All I have to do is just tap on it.

8:25
And now I am locked into the books app. I want to make some changes to it. Maybe I want to set a time limit. I want to disable a few of the buttons. All I have to do is just pressing on the sleep wake button three times 123 Tap on Guided Access again.

8:42
It asks for that code.

8:46
And now I go to options in the lower left hand corner.

8:49
I can go and set my options including my time limit. If I want to resume I go to resume in the upper right hand corner. If I want to end it I go to end in the upper left hand corner.

9:00
And now I’m able to get back to my home screen.

9:05
So that’s how we use Guided Access on the iPad and iPhone.