Lock iOS app in single app mode programmatically

Question

Note : I don't want to submit this app to app store.

What i want to achieve :

I want simple app with one view having two button Lock and Unlock.

Lock - This button will lock device. Only this app's screen will show nothing else will be accessible even after restart same screen will show up. Home button, gestures will get disabled similar to single app mode.

Unlock - This will unlock device and switch to normal behaviour of device.

iOS : I want this for iOS 4.3 and above.

I have checked following solutions, but these don't match my requirements

1. Configuration profile

   Lock-down iPhone/iPod/iPad so it can only run one app

   But it is manual (reboot device, open app which you want to run in single app mode). I want to do it programmatically the way i mentioned above through my app.

2. Guided access (iOS 6 and above)

   How to lock down user to Single App mode in iOS 6, Programmatically?

   I want it do for all os and programatically.

Is there any way to do this ? As i don't wan't to submit it to app store is there any private api, some hack for springboard to achieve this ?

Thanks in advance !!

Answer 1

As I know in iOS 7 there is a new feature which allow to do exactly what you want. However, it's only applicable for iOS 7 (and I believe it's only applicable to a supervised devices).

1) You will need to install restriction configuration profile with autonomousSingleAppModePermittedAppIDs key (take a look here)

This is one time step and a user will need to manually accept this configuration profile.

There is another option to use MDM to install it silently, but it could be an overkill for you.

2) You should use API:

UIAccessibilityRequestGuidedAccessSession (to lock/unlock)

It is defined here

3) And most beautility part. All of it is officially document. So, you can even submit it to AppStore.

P.S. Why do you care about 4.3 or 5? They have tiny market share by now. Most likely even iOS 6 has below 20% market share already.

Update 1

Potentially, you can try to use API which sends clicks and keys (search for GSEvent in iPhone-privateapi tag). May be using these API's you can do triple home to toggle accessibility on and off.

If this work, I think you should be able to cover iOS 6. I am not sure whether both this API and triple home click were available prior that.

It looks like this private API is unaccessible anymore in iOS 7. So, probably you can ignore this idea.

Answer 2

Just wanted to write on this even though this is old as i needed to implement a similar solution and i got it working. The steps for me as follows and a note here is that this involves MDM and other specific steps.

My requirement was as follows. Each of the iPad at different locations has a set of apps installed.For ease of it lets assume each Dept. has their own apps. Participants open a app related to their dept. to take a test, the APP automatically Locks the iPad to single-app Mode and at the end of the test, it will unlock it self.

1. Supervise the iPad/iphone using the Apple Configurator.
2. Install the MDM related files ( Each MDM has its own set of instructions, usually involves downloading a profile).
3. Every MDM has a option of Single APP Mode or MultipleAppMode. Select the second option and add the app IDs to the list. (A single APP mode works pretty well with MDM's but i did not want the app to be locked to a single APP all the time).
4. I used the UIAccessibilityRequestGuidedAccessSession api to lock unlock the device from single app mode.

http://bobxcode.blogspot.com/2015/12/programmatically-implement-single-app.html

Thanks, Bob