Prevent iOS from taking screen capture of app before going into background

Question

You all might know that iOS takes a screen shot of your application before throwing it into the background. This is usually for a better User experience like quick animation

Answer 1

You are on the right track. This is Apple's recommended way to do this as noted in the iOS Application Programming Guide:

Remove sensitive information from views before moving to the background. When an application transitions to the background, the system takes a snapshot of the application’s main window, which it then presents briefly when transitioning your application back to the foreground. Before returning from your applicationDidEnterBackground: method, you should hide or obscure passwords and other sensitive personal information that might be captured as part of the snapshot.

Answer 2

In iOS 7 you could use the allowScreenShot to stop the ability all together.

See: Apple Developer: Configuration Profile Reference:

allowScreenShot

---

Boolean

---

Optional. If set to false, users can’t save a screenshot of the display and are prevented from capturing a screen recording; it also prevents the Classroom app from observing remote screens. Defaults to true.

Availability: Updated in iOS 9.0 to include screen recordings.

Answer 3

Improvement in Depak Kumar post : Make a property UIImage *snapShotOfSplash;

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] ignoreSnapshotOnNextApplicationLaunch];
snapShotOfSplash =[UIImage imageNamed:@"splash_logo"];
}

- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application {


    self.overlayView = [[UIImageView alloc]initWithFrame:[self.window frame]];
    self.overlayView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    [self.overlayView setImage:snapShotOfSplash];
    [self.overlayView setContentMode:UIViewContentModeCenter];
    [self.window addSubview:self.overlayView];
    [self.window bringSubviewToFront:self.overlayView]; }

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application {
if(self.overlayView != nil) {
        [self.overlayView removeFromSuperview];
        self.overlayView = nil;
    }
}

Answer 4

Need to write the code in Application life cycle methods, here we are putting an imageView while the app animate to background :

-(void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    imageView = [[UIImageView alloc]initWithFrame:[self.window frame]];
    [imageView setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"Splash_Screen.png"]];
    [self.window addSubview:imageView];
}

Here is the code to remove the imageView:

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    if(imageView != nil) {
        [imageView removeFromSuperview];
        imageView = nil;
    }
}

It is working and properly tested.

Answer 5

I came across the same issue, and my research has lead me to the following answers:

• set a blurry screen overlay before the app goes in the background and once the app becomes active remove this overlay

• if it is iOS 7 or later you can use the function ignoreSnapshotOnNextApplicationLaunch

See in apple documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIApplication_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/occ/instm/UIApplication/ignoreSnapshotOnNextApplicationLaunch

I hope this helps somebody.

Answer 6

Implementation with some animation while going in background and reverse action

   - (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
     //     fill screen with our own colour
        UIView *colourView = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame:self.window.frame];
        colourView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        colourView.tag = 1111;
        colourView.alpha = 0;
        [self.window addSubview:colourView];
        [self.window bringSubviewToFront:colourView];

        // fade in the view
        [UIView animateWithDuration:0.5 animations:^{
            colourView.alpha = 1;
        }];

}

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    // grab a reference to our coloured view
    UIView *colourView = [self.window viewWithTag:1111];
    // fade away colour view from main view
    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.5 animations:^{
        colourView.alpha = 0;
    } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
        // remove when finished fading
        [colourView removeFromSuperview];
    }];

 }