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Both Apple and Android have this feature preloaded. On Apple it’s called Guided Access and is three taps of the power button if enabled. On Android I’m not sure

by odo1242 2mo ago

Both Apple and Android have this feature preloaded. On Apple it’s called Guided Access and is three taps of the power button if enabled. On Android I’m not sure but I do know it exists (edit: it’s called App Pinning) On iOS you can also disable specific actions and even select areas of the screen you want to disable touchscreen usage over.

mschuster91 2mo ago
> On Apple it’s called Guided Access and is three taps of the power button if enabled. Nice. Unfortunately, GA does not seem to work with Apple Wallet at all.
- Closi 2mo ago
  I've just tested it and it works - you have to disable touch though to get the full 'lock down to one event ticket'
- odo1242 2mo ago
  It should work. If you mean using Guided Access while Apple Wallet is enabled, you double click for Apple Wallet and triple click for Guided Access. If you want to use Apple Wallet while Guided Access is enabled, you have to enable the side button in Guided Access settings. You can also configure the action button to enable Guided Access as well depending on what phone you have.
  - mschuster91 2mo ago
    > If you want to use Apple Wallet while Guided Access is enabled, you have to enable the side button in Guided Access settings. I don't have that one (iPhone 15 Pro). When triple tapping in Wallet, I get an overlay "guided access cannot be opened when multiple apps are active". The scenario would be e.g. at a concert entrance queue where there is a nonzero risk of someone snatching the unlocked phone out of my hands.
Closi 2mo ago
100% - I would have assumed the author would have searched first as it's trivial to find this feature if you look on Google or ask ChatGPT. I do wonder if part of the issue though is that we have thousands of these 'great' features, so discovery is poor because people can't possibly know about them all. 'great' features lost in a sea of other 'great' features.
- curvise 2mo ago
  well this is embarrassing. just noticed a ~1000% increase in traffic and it's almost all from hackernews where i find the post getting dunked on :) anyway, at least a few dozen other people didn't know about this feature, so i guess the post was helpful anyway. for the record, just now i tried and couldn't find any reference to these modes in the first 2 queries i thought of, so it's not trivial to find that it already exists (although i do not use google or chatgpt). i just assumed that if the feature existed i would have heard about it before, so i wrote a blog post, and it was fun. to your point about discoverability, i think that's true, and there's no comprehensive user manual for android, which would be the normal way one would discover features in a device. hm, that's another feature i'd like in my phone: a built-in digital technical manual, like the safety & regulatory manual.
jahnu 2mo ago
Beware of trying it when you really might need your phone. It can get stuck in weird ways where triple-clicking brings up the pin entry screen and then shuts off the display for a while being unresponsive to the power button. Basically it’s frustratingly buggy.
ChrisRR 2mo ago
From the post "There's a better name for it somewhere but it's not my job to find it" You think if they couldn't even be arsed to google the name, that they'd google to find out their idea has already existed for years?
- xtiansimon 2mo ago
  Geez-sus Maybe I’m reading too much into these negative comments, but we’re reading the same text. Right? Some rando’s thoughts in their public blog (no offense intended; the about admits they’re just a person on Central Time)? It’s not like this is an article on Tom’s Hardware or TechDirt. I’m not against pointing out errors and oversights, but why this sense of offense, shock, incredulity. Heck. It’s not AI Slop or do you want more AI articles instead of these uninformed hot-take blog posts? Hehe
  - rpdillon 2mo ago
    For me, it's that writing the blog post clearly took more effort than searching for the proper name of the feature. So writing in the blog post that they can't be bothered to find the proper name of the feature seems performative: if they were actually concerned about addressing the problem, they would have addressed it, and there would be no blog post.
    - soiltype 2mo ago
      I'm confused about what "bothered to find the proper name" means for a feature they believe they're inventing. If they believed it had a name that would mean they already know it exists.
      - ChrisRR 2mo ago
        Maybe I overestimate people if I assume that when someone thinks of something they want to do with their phone, they google how to do it, rather than just assume they invented it and write a blog post about it
rodface 2mo ago
Guided Access is what I occasionally used when our first child was 2-3 years old and I had to hand him the phone to watch videos with input locked out. It was never an effortless process, it would be awkward to fumble around with before handing my phone to someone. It would make it look like I have something to hide (don't we all?) Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

by odo1242 2mo ago

mschuster91 2mo ago

> On Apple it’s called Guided Access and is three taps of the power button if enabled. Nice. Unfortunately, GA does not seem to work with Apple Wallet at all.

Closi 2mo ago
I've just tested it and it works - you have to disable touch though to get the full 'lock down to one event ticket'
odo1242 2mo ago
It should work. If you mean using Guided Access while Apple Wallet is enabled, you double click for Apple Wallet and triple click for Guided Access. If you want to use Apple Wallet while Guided Access is enabled, you have to enable the side button in Guided Access settings. You can also configure the action button to enable Guided Access as well depending on what phone you have.
- mschuster91 2mo ago
  > If you want to use Apple Wallet while Guided Access is enabled, you have to enable the side button in Guided Access settings. I don't have that one (iPhone 15 Pro). When triple tapping in Wallet, I get an overlay "guided access cannot be opened when multiple apps are active". The scenario would be e.g. at a concert entrance queue where there is a nonzero risk of someone snatching the unlocked phone out of my hands.

Closi 2mo ago

100% - I would have assumed the author would have searched first as it's trivial to find this feature if you look on Google or ask ChatGPT. I do wonder if part of the issue though is that we have thousands of these 'great' features, so discovery is poor because people can't possibly know about them all. 'great' features lost in a sea of other 'great' features.

curvise 2mo ago
well this is embarrassing. just noticed a ~1000% increase in traffic and it's almost all from hackernews where i find the post getting dunked on :) anyway, at least a few dozen other people didn't know about this feature, so i guess the post was helpful anyway. for the record, just now i tried and couldn't find any reference to these modes in the first 2 queries i thought of, so it's not trivial to find that it already exists (although i do not use google or chatgpt). i just assumed that if the feature existed i would have heard about it before, so i wrote a blog post, and it was fun. to your point about discoverability, i think that's true, and there's no comprehensive user manual for android, which would be the normal way one would discover features in a device. hm, that's another feature i'd like in my phone: a built-in digital technical manual, like the safety & regulatory manual.

jahnu 2mo ago

Beware of trying it when you really might need your phone. It can get stuck in weird ways where triple-clicking brings up the pin entry screen and then shuts off the display for a while being unresponsive to the power button. Basically it’s frustratingly buggy.

ChrisRR 2mo ago

From the post "There's a better name for it somewhere but it's not my job to find it" You think if they couldn't even be arsed to google the name, that they'd google to find out their idea has already existed for years?

xtiansimon 2mo ago
Geez-sus Maybe I’m reading too much into these negative comments, but we’re reading the same text. Right? Some rando’s thoughts in their public blog (no offense intended; the about admits they’re just a person on Central Time)? It’s not like this is an article on Tom’s Hardware or TechDirt. I’m not against pointing out errors and oversights, but why this sense of offense, shock, incredulity. Heck. It’s not AI Slop or do you want more AI articles instead of these uninformed hot-take blog posts? Hehe
- rpdillon 2mo ago
  For me, it's that writing the blog post clearly took more effort than searching for the proper name of the feature. So writing in the blog post that they can't be bothered to find the proper name of the feature seems performative: if they were actually concerned about addressing the problem, they would have addressed it, and there would be no blog post.
  - soiltype 2mo ago
    I'm confused about what "bothered to find the proper name" means for a feature they believe they're inventing. If they believed it had a name that would mean they already know it exists.
    - ChrisRR 2mo ago
      Maybe I overestimate people if I assume that when someone thinks of something they want to do with their phone, they google how to do it, rather than just assume they invented it and write a blog post about it

rodface 2mo ago

Guided Access is what I occasionally used when our first child was 2-3 years old and I had to hand him the phone to watch videos with input locked out. It was never an effortless process, it would be awkward to fumble around with before handing my phone to someone. It would make it look like I have something to hide (don't we all?) Maybe I'm doing something wrong.