Enable This Setting to Protect Your Privacy When You Allow Someone Else to Use Your IPhone.
Your phone is a one-stop shop for much of your personal information, from daily activities recorded in your calendar and email to financial data accessed through banking apps. If you allow someone else to use your device—whether it’s sharing photos with friends or allowing a stranger to make an emergency call—you don’t want them to see anything else.
If you use an iPhone, there are several features you can enable to prevent others from tracking your device.
Use the Guided Access feature.
If you don’t want anyone using your device to see anything else, you can enable Guided Access, which limits access to a single app (such as Phone or Photos). This essentially locks your screen and prevents navigation beyond the specific features you’ve made available.
First, go to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and enable this feature. Tap Passcode Settings to set a specific passcode, or toggle Face ID to use biometrics to end Guided Access sessions.
To start a guided session before handing over the phone, open the app and triple-click the side button. You can circle specific areas of the screen that you don’t want to respond to touch (such as swiping through photos). At the bottom, tap Session Settings to set a time limit, disable the keyboard, and manage button press settings. Then tap Start .
To end a step-by-step access session, triple-click the side button and enter your passcode, or double-click and authenticate with Face ID.
You can also block or hide specific apps.
Some mobile apps, such as financial apps and password managers, already require login or authentication with a username and password combination or device biometrics each time you open them. You can also lock other individual apps on your iPhone so that Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode are required for access. To lock an app from the Home screen, tap and hold the icon until the quick actions menu appears, then tap “Require Face ID.”
Alternatively, you can hide apps to prevent others from seeing them on your device (much less opening them) unless you authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. To hide an app, long-press the icon on the Home screen and select “Require Face ID” from the quick actions menu. Select “Hide and Require Face ID” > “Hide App.” To open a hidden app, swipe left on the Home screen to open the App Library, find and tap the “Hidden” folder at the bottom, authenticate to unlock the folder, and then open the app.
(Note that some built-in iOS apps, including Calculator, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Find, Maps, Shortcuts, and Settings, cannot be locked, and pre-installed system apps cannot be hidden.)