iOS Detection of Screenshot?

Question

As of iOS 7 the other answers are no longer true. Apple has made it so touchesCancelled:withEvent: is no longer called when the user takes a screenshot.

This would effectively break Snapchat entirely, so a couple betas in a new solution was added. Now, the solution is as simple as using NSNotificationCenter to add an observer to UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshotNotification.

Here's an example:

Objective C

NSOperationQueue *mainQueue = [NSOperationQueue mainQueue];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserverForName:UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshotNotification
                                                  object:nil
                                                   queue:mainQueue
                                              usingBlock:^(NSNotification *note) {
                                                 // executes after screenshot
                                              }];

Swift

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
    forName: UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification,
    object: nil,
    queue: .main) { notification in
        //executes after screenshot
}

I found the answer!! Taking a screenshot interrupts any touches that are on the screen. This is why snapchat requires holding to see the picture. Reference: http://tumblr.jeremyjohnstone.com/post/38503925370/how-to-detect-screenshots-on-ios-like-snapchat

Heres how to do in Swift with closures:

func detectScreenShot(action: () -> ()) {
    let mainQueue = NSOperationQueue.mainQueue()
    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserverForName(UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshotNotification, object: nil, queue: mainQueue) { notification in
        // executes after screenshot
        action()
    }
}

detectScreenShot { () -> () in
    print("User took a screen shot")
}

Swift 4.2

func detectScreenShot(action: @escaping () -> ()) {
    let mainQueue = OperationQueue.main
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification, object: nil, queue: mainQueue) { notification in
        // executes after screenshot
        action()
    }
}

This is included as a standard function in:

https://github.com/goktugyil/EZSwiftExtensions

Disclaimer: Its my repo

Swift 4+

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification, object: nil, queue: OperationQueue.main) { notification in
           //you can do anything you want here. 
        }

by using this observer you can find out when user takes a screenshot, but you can not prevent him.