Turn off display in iPhone OS (iOS)

Question

is there a way to programmatically turn off the display in iOS? Not just turning brightness down, but off like the way the Phone App does. I am happy to use private API, since this is for personal use.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can turn off the display by enabling the proximity monitoring. It will automatically turn off the screen, like in the Phone app, by placing the phone near your ears or by placing a finger over the IR sensor at the top of the phone.

[UIDevice currentDevice].proximityMonitoringEnabled = YES;

Answer 2

You can do this, (obviously, using Private APIs of course) :

on iOS5:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <dlfcn.h>

int (*SBSSpringBoardServerPort)() = (int (*)())dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, "SBSSpringBoardServerPort");
int port = SBSSpringBoardServerPort(); 
void (*SBDimScreen)(int _port,BOOL shouldDim) = (void (*)(int _port,BOOL shouldDim))dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, "SBDimScreen");

and then use

SBDimScreen(port,YES); 

whenever you want to dim, and

SBDimScreen(port,NO);

whenever you want to undim.

On iOS6:

void (*BKSDisplayServicesSetScreenBlanked)(BOOL blanked) = (void (*)(BOOL blanked))dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, "BKSDisplayServicesSetScreenBlanked");

and then use:

BKSDisplayServicesSetScreenBlanked(1); // 1 to dim, 0 to undim

"Dim" here means totally turn off the screen. This is what the system uses when e.g. a proximity event occurs while in a call.

Answer 3

The only way I know of, public or private, is using the power button.

You might look at -[UIApplication setProximitySensingEnabled:(BOOL)], or -[UIApplication setIdleTimerDisabled:YES], this might lead to something useful

Answer 4

Have you tried:

[[UIScreen mainScreen] setBrightness: yourvalue];

SO question 8936999: iPhone: How can we programmatically change the brightness of the screen?

Answer 5

Proximity doesn't work on all devices. There's a much simpler solution to this problem without resorting to private APIs.

Swift

UIScreen.main.wantsSoftwareDimming = true
UIScreen.main.brightness = 0.0

Without wantsSoftwareDimming, the backlight will never completely turn off. The docs have this cautionary sentence:

The default value is false. Enabling it may cause a loss in performance.

Answer 6

I do not think there is any to turn off the display (simulating iphone sleep button) except changing the brightness.

This link might help.