Is it possible to take a screenshot of the Home Screen programmatically from inside of my application?
Thanks!
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vikingosegundo
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You can take screenshots of your app, but I don't think it't possible to take screenshots of the phone home screen – jcesarmobile Nov 19 '12 at 18:23
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7I hope, there is no way to do so. – vikingosegundo Nov 19 '12 at 18:24
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Maybe if you put the screenshot code on the applicationDidEnterBackgroud – jcesarmobile Nov 19 '12 at 18:25
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2As an iPhone user I'd really like if apps are not able to take a screenshot. The last thing I need is an application taking such a screenshot and then using it to attempt to social engineer me into getting my Apple ID password by presenting the AppStore dialog over the screenshot as a background. – Franci Penov Nov 19 '12 at 18:27
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hahah, thats not what i'm trying to do.. :( – ytpm Nov 19 '12 at 18:28
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@YossiTsafar — tell us: why do u want to take a photo of the user's home screen? I cant think of any reason, that isnt quite nasty… – vikingosegundo Nov 19 '12 at 18:29
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@vikingosegundo, sorry man, but I don't think that I have to tell you why do I need to take a screenshot. Trust me that it's not for bad purpose. – ytpm Nov 19 '12 at 18:31
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@YossiTsafar — I just wonder. because I would consider any screenshot taken without my interaction and knowledge to be act of spying. – vikingosegundo Nov 19 '12 at 18:34
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2Luckily, this can't be done without a jailbreak. – Filip Radelic Nov 19 '12 at 18:34
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Not possible unless you are jailbroken and use MobileSubstrate. – WrightsCS Nov 19 '12 at 18:40
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1Trust me that it's not for bad purpose. – Yossi Tsafar Only people who jailbreak their iOS devices would trust you on this. – James Thiele Nov 19 '12 at 18:52
1 Answers
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Using Private APIs yes. UIGetScreenImage() also works when the app is running in the background. I set up an app to take a screenshot whenever an exception is thrown, and it also takes screenshots of the home screen/ other apps when it crashes while running in the background.
This question has some interesting answers regarding the DisplayRecorder app from the AppStore: How does the iOS app Display Recorder record the screen without using private API?
And this shows you how to use UIGetScreenImage: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2507740/832065
Update:
_UICreateScreenUIImage() is a much faster method of getting a screenshot. It also returns a UIImage instead of CGImageRef:
OBJC_EXTERN UIImage *_UICreateScreenUIImage(void) NS_RETURNS_RETAINED;
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2Please note that using a private API will get the app rejected when it is submitted to the App store. – James Thiele Nov 19 '12 at 18:55
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1Yeah thats obvious... Its not necessary to mention every time that Private APIs are rejected by apple. Dynamic loading of Private Frameworks at runtime (dlopen?) or something similar can sneak past apple's static analyzer – JonasG Nov 19 '12 at 18:56
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1At least in iOS7, `UIGetScreenImage()` doesn't work in the background, you clearly get a message in the log that you can't do so if you try. However, before you get effectively in background mode, the last image you can get is the springboard (as you're leaving your app), but nothing after that unfortunately. – Frank Dec 19 '13 at 03:04
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_UICreateScreenUIImage gives me a black image. Does this API still work? – EmilyJ Mar 02 '16 at 09:08
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