Prevent screen capture in an iOS app

I've just wrote simple extension of UIView that allows to hide it from screen-capturing, Airplay mirroring and so on. The solution uses ability of UITextField to hide a password from capturing.

extension UIView { func makeSecure() { DispatchQueue.main.async { let field = UITextField() field.isSecureTextEntry = true field.isUserInteractionEnabled = false self.addSubview(field) field.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.centerYAnchor).isActive = true field.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.centerXAnchor).isActive = true self.layer.superlayer?.addSublayer(field.layer) field.layer.sublayers?.first?.addSublayer(self.layer) } } } 

using:

class ViewController: UIViewController { var secureView: UIView! override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() secureView.makeSecure() } } 

I'll be grateful if someone explains how Apple does this magic inside.

There's no way to prevent taking screenshots entirely. You can do what Snapchat does, which is by requiring the user to be touching the screen to view whatever information you're displaying. This is because the system screenshot event interrupts touches. It's not a perfect method and you can't prevent users from taking screenshots 100% of the time.

More details: iOS Detection of Screenshot?

It's been a while, but I just came across ScreenShieldKit, which is a patent-pending technology used by the messaging app Confide. What it does is that it let's the user take screenshots, but the content is blank on the end picture. They recently released the iOS version.

For iOS 17, Swift 4 or Swift 5, those who are getting issue or crash with the previous implementations. Here is a correct way to do it. I just implemented and tested it on iOS 17+.

Add this code in AppDelegate class:

func makeSecure(window: UIWindow) { let field = UITextField() let view = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: field.frame.self.width, height: field.frame.self.height)) let image = UIImageView(image: UIImage(named: "whiteImage")) image.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: UIScreen.main.bounds.height) field.isSecureTextEntry = true window.addSubview(field) view.addSubview(image) window.layer.superlayer?.addSublayer(field.layer) field.layer.sublayers?.last!.addSublayer(window.layer) field.leftView = view field.leftViewMode = .always } 

You can call this from AppDelegate's didFinishLaunchingWithOptions function.

if let window = window { makeSecure(window: window) } 

This will prevent screen recording as well as ScreenShot in your app.

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.

In swift 4 add this code to your app delegate.

Declare a variable in app delegate

var imageview : UIImageView? func applicationWillResignActive(_ application: UIApplication) { imageview = UIImageView.init(image: UIImage.init(named: "bg_splash")) self.window?.addSubview(imageview!) // Sent when the application is about to move from active to inactive state. This can occur for certain types of temporary interruptions (such as an incoming phone call or SMS message) or when the user quits the application and it begins the transition to the background state. // Use this method to pause ongoing tasks, disable timers, and invalidate graphics rendering callbacks. Games should use this method to pause the game. } func applicationDidBecomeActive(_ application: UIApplication) { if (imageview != nil){ imageview?.removeFromSuperview() imageview = nil } // Restart any tasks that were paused (or not yet started) while the application was inactive. If the application was previously in the background, optionally refresh the user interface. } 

You can implement just one function to achieve that:

func disableScreenshots(layer: CALayer) { let textField = UITextField() var secureView: UIView? for subview in textField.subviews { if NSStringFromClass(type(of: subview)).contains("TextLayoutCanvasView") { secureView = subview break } } guard let secureView = secureView else { return } let previousLayer = secureView.layer secureView.setValue(layer, forKey: "layer") textField.isSecureTextEntry = true secureView.setValue(previousLayer, forKey: "layer") } 

Or, if you want a more efficient version:

struct DisableScreenshot { private static let textField = UITextField() private static let secureView = textField.subviews.first { NSStringFromClass(type(of: $0)).contains("TextLayoutCanvasView") } static func disableScreenshots(layer: CALayer) { guard let secureView = Self.secureView else { return } let previousLayer = secureView.layer secureView.setValue(layer, forKey: "layer") Self.textField.isSecureTextEntry = true secureView.setValue(previousLayer, forKey: "layer") } } extension CALayer { func disableScreenshots() { DisableScreenshot.disableScreenshots(layer: self) } } 

You can use this extension below. Please apply this method to the parent view

 extension UIView { func preventScreenshot(for view: UIView) { let textField = UITextField() textField.isSecureTextEntry = true textField.isUserInteractionEnabled = false guard let hiddenView = textField.layer.sublayers?.first?.delegate as? UIView else { return } hiddenView.subviews.forEach { $0.removeFromSuperview() } hiddenView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false self.addSubview(hiddenView) hiddenView.fillSuperview() hiddenView.addSubview(view) } } 

So for instance to be able to prevent screenshots on a scrollView

private weak var scrollView: UIScrollView! (it's an outlet) 

in your viewDidLoad, just do this below

self.view.preventScreenshot(for: self.scrollView) 

Note: fillSuperview is just anchoring your view to its superview so it's like below:

NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ hiddenView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.leadingAnchor), hiddenView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.trailingAnchor), hiddenView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.bottomAnchor), hiddenView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.topAnchor) ]) 

When using the UITextField.isSecureTextEntry trick to block screenshots / screen recordings for an entire UIWindow, now we noticed that on iOS 26 and in RTL languages (like Arabic), a black strip appears on the left side. This happens because the UITextField internally reserves layout space for its leftView/rightView when system language is RTL, causing misalignment.

You can force the field to render in LTR mode so it doesn’t reserve the space in Arabic:

extension UIWindow { func makeSecure() { DispatchQueue.main.async { let field = UITextField() let view = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: field.frame.self.width, height: field.frame.self.height)) field.isSecureTextEntry = true self.addSubview(field) self.layer.superlayer?.addSublayer(field.layer) field.layer.sublayers?.last!.addSublayer(self.layer) field.leftView = view field.leftViewMode = .always field.semanticContentAttribute = .forceLeftToRight } } } 

And Call your method in you AppDelegate.swift

 window?.makeSecure() 

This will work because Apple handles secure content by rendering UITextField (with isSecureTextEntry = true) in a protected Core Animation layer that WindowServer excludes from screenshots and recordings.

im using UITextField.isSecureTextEntry trick to block screenshots / screen recordings for an entire UIWindow . i tweak again so i can use it on specific page. so i call it on viewWillAppear and viewWillDisappear

add extension to UIWindow

extension UIWindow { private static var secureFields: [WeakWindowWrapper] = [] // MARK: - Secure Layer func makeSecure() { DispatchQueue.main.async { let field = UITextField() field.isSecureTextEntry = true field.isUserInteractionEnabled = false field.backgroundColor = .clear field.semanticContentAttribute = .forceLeftToRight self.addSubview(field) self.layer.superlayer?.addSublayer(field.layer) field.layer.sublayers?.last?.addSublayer(self.layer) // save field for this window UIWindow.secureFields.removeAll { $0.window == nil } UIWindow.secureFields.append(WeakWindowWrapper(window: self, field: field)) } } // MARK: - Change secure func setSecure(_ isSecure: Bool) { DispatchQueue.main.async { guard let wrapper = UIWindow.secureFields.first(where: { $0.window === self }) else { print("⚠️ The secure field is not set yet. Call makeSecure() first.") return } wrapper.field.isSecureTextEntry = isSecure } } } // MARK: - Helper struct private class WeakWindowWrapper { weak var window: UIWindow? let field: UITextField init(window: UIWindow, field: UITextField) { self.window = window self.field = field } } 

call makeSecure() func on AppDelegate

window?.makeSecure() 

add this extension for UIViewController

extension UIViewController { func setWindowSecure(_ isSecure: Bool) { DispatchQueue.main.async { if let window = self.view.window ?? UIApplication.shared.windows.first { window.setSecure(isSecure) } else { print("No active window was found for this UIViewController.") } } } } 

how to use it on specific view controller

 override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) { super.viewWillAppear(animated) setWindowSecure(true) } override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) { super.viewWillDisappear(animated) setWindowSecure(false) } 

I've heard that you can listen for a screenshot event using UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshotNotification

 NSOperationQueue *mainQueue = [NSOperationQueue mainQueue]; [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserverForName:UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshotNotification object:nil queue:mainQueue usingBlock:^(NSNotification *note) { // executes after screenshot NSLog(@"Screenshot Detection : %@", note); UIAlertView *screenshotAlert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Screenshot Detected" message:@"Oh Oh no screenshot bruhh" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil]; [screenshotAlert show]; }]; 

what if you could immediately delete the screenshot file when it was made?

You can prevent screen capture and screen recording of a specific view in your app by using this custom view. Also, you can add your own placeholder that will only show when the user tries to screen capture or screen record.

import Foundation import UIKit class SecureView: UIView { // placeholder will become visible when user try to capture screenshot // or try to record the screen private(set) var placeholderView: UIView = { let view = UIView() view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false return view }() // add your content in this view // it will be secure private(set) var contentView: UIView = { let hiddenView = UIView() hiddenView.makeSecure() hiddenView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false return hiddenView }() override init(frame: CGRect) { super.init(frame: frame) setupView() } required init?(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented") } fileprivate func setupView() { self.addSubview(placeholderView) self.addSubview(contentView) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ placeholderView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.leadingAnchor), placeholderView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.trailingAnchor), placeholderView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.topAnchor), placeholderView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.bottomAnchor), contentView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.leadingAnchor), contentView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.trailingAnchor), contentView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.topAnchor), contentView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.bottomAnchor), ]) } } extension UIView { func makeSecure() { DispatchQueue.main.async { let field = UITextField() field.isSecureTextEntry = true self.addSubview(field) field.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.centerYAnchor).isActive = true field.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.centerXAnchor).isActive = true self.layer.superlayer?.addSublayer(field.layer) field.layer.sublayers?.first?.addSublayer(self.layer) } } } 

Sample project

Demo.gif