iPhone Assistive Access

There is a “dumb phone” movement sweeping the continent. I’m old enough to remember when a cellphone could only make calls. Text messaging was a pretty nifty improvement later. Now I can sit on a beach in Vietnam and fix computers in my wife’s office from my phone. I get how incredibly distracting all the stuff on a smartphone can be, and for some people, eliminating distractions or controlling usage is a necessity.

I talk to parents regularly who feel pressured to provide their children with a phone for communication, wayfinding, etc., but they want to be selective about what their children can access. If this is you, this is your column.

There is a way to turn your iPhone into a dumb phone with usage limited to just what you want, and it’s pretty easy to accomplish. This is actually a great way to turn an older iPhone into a kid-friendly device. It’s also great if you have an aging parent whom, for varying reasons, you want to manage what they can do on the phone.

There is a bit of setup in advance. The first thing you’ll want to do is go through the contact list. You can either remove any contacts you don’t want on the phone or create a contact list and only add the contacts you want. If you want to set the phone so your child can only call you but can be called by people other than you, or vice versa, then you’ll want to create two contact lists.

Now let’s set up the limitations. Open Settings -> Accessibility -> Assistive Access -> Set Up Assistive Access. Follow the prompts to confirm the Apple Account or change it if needed. Select appearance.  I like the Grid. It gives BIG buttons. Then you’ll go down the list and only select the apps that you want to be available.

Many applications, such as Calls, Messaging, Photos, Calendar, etc., if selected, will prompt you for limitations in usage. For example, if you add Calls to the approved app list, it will ask you which contact lists the user will be able to receive calls from and which contact list they can make calls to. It’s similar to Messages with the addition of questions about input. As in whether the user can use the keyboard, camera, video selfies, or even emojis. Music, Photos, TV, etc. these present you with specific options to manage prior to adding them to the application list.

After adding, you’ll be informed that there are some changes in how things like notifications and privacy work, but also that Emergency Services are still available with a triple-click on the side button. You’ll be asked for a unique 4-digit passcode to secure Assistive Access. You’ll need this code to exit Assistive Access.

At this point, the phone will only display the apps you’ve selected. There’s no App Store, so nothing else can be added. URLs sent via text are dead, so there’s no backdoor way to get to the internet.

To exit, triple-click the side button, select Exit Assistive Access and enter your 4-digit code. It takes a minute or so to return to its former state.

Happy “Safer” Computing.