How to Limit Your Child to One App With Guided Access on iPhone and iPad

You hand your phone to a toddler to watch a cartoon, and two minutes later they've opened your email, called your boss, or deleted a photo. Every parent has been there. Guided Access solves this by locking an iPhone or iPad to a single app. Your child can use that app, but they can't press the Home or side button to leave it, open notifications or swipe into anything else.

It's built into every iPhone and iPad, it's free, and once it's set up it takes two seconds to start.

When Guided Access is useful

• Handing your phone to a young child for a game or video
• Restaurants, waiting rooms, car trips and flights
• Letting a child use a reading or learning app without wandering off
• Children with attention, sensory or developmental needs who benefit from fewer distractions
• Sharing your phone to show someone a photo without them swiping through the rest

For a dedicated child's device with longer-term rules, use Screen Time and Family Sharing as well. Guided Access is best for short, supervised sessions.

Step 1: Turn on Guided Access

You only need to do this once.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Scroll down to the General section and tap Guided Access.
4. Turn on Guided Access.
5. Tap Passcode Settings, then Set Guided Access Passcode, and enter a passcode your child doesn't know.
6. Optionally, turn on Face ID or Touch ID so you can end sessions without typing the code.

While you're here, look at the other options:

• Time Limits: choose an alarm or spoken warning before time runs out.
• Accessibility Shortcut: lets you use other accessibility features during a session.
• Display Auto-Lock: sets how long before the screen locks during Guided Access.

Step 2: Start a session

1. Open the app you want your child to use.
2. Triple-click the side button (or the Home button on iPhones and iPads that have one).
3. If you use more than one accessibility shortcut, tap Guided Access in the menu that appears.
4. The Guided Access setup screen appears.
5. Tap Start in the top-right corner.

The app is now locked. Your child can use it normally, but can't leave it.

Step 3: Customize the session (optional)

Before tapping Start, you can fine-tune what your child can do.

Disable parts of the screen

Use your finger to circle any area of the screen you want to disable, such as an ads banner, a "buy" button, a settings icon or a chat box. Those areas turn gray and stop responding to touch. You can adjust or remove the shapes before starting.

Choose options

Tap Options in the bottom-left corner to turn these on or off:

Turning off Touch is great for videos with very young children: the video plays, but tapping the screen does nothing.

Time Limit is handy for "you can play for 20 minutes." When time runs out, the screen locks and the app can't be used until you end or restart the session.

Guided Access remembers your settings for each app, so next time you start a session in the same app, it uses the same areas and options.

Step 4: End the session

1. Triple-click the side button (or Home button).
2. Enter your Guided Access passcode, or use Face ID or Touch ID if you turned it on.
3. Tap End in the top-left corner.

You can also tap Resume to continue, or change options and continue.

Tips and troubleshooting

• Use a different passcode from your device passcode. Kids who've watched you unlock your phone often know that one.
• Plug in the device for long sessions. Guided Access doesn't stop the battery from draining.
• Notifications are hidden during a session, so your child won't see your messages pop up. You'll see them after you end the session.
• If triple-click does nothing, go back to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and make sure it's on. Also check Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.
• If you forget the passcode, you may need to force restart the device to exit. Steps vary by model and are listed on Apple's Use Guided Access support page.

Guided Access vs Screen Time

Guided Access and Screen Time do different jobs:

• Guided Access is a temporary lock for one session, set up on the spot, ideal when handing over your own device.
• Screen Time sets ongoing rules for a child's own device, such as which apps are allowed, age ratings, web filtering, time allowances and who they can contact.

Many families use both. A young child might have an iPad with Screen Time limits, and parents still use Guided Access to lock it into a single learning app during homework time.

If your child has their own iPad, our guides to kid-safe browsers and restricting in-app purchases cover the next steps. For Amazon tablets, see our article on parental controls for the Kindle Fire.

Quick recap

• Turn on Guided Access in Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and set a passcode.
• Open an app and triple-click the side or Home button to start.
• Circle areas to disable them, and use Options for touch, buttons and time limits.
• Triple-click again and enter your passcode to end.
• Use Screen Time for longer-term rules on a child's own device.