How to detect when the user takes a screenshot

Paul Hudson    February 12th 2018    @twostraws

If you’re showing sensitive data it can be important to know when you’re user takes a screenshot. Snapchat, for example, automatically notifies participants in a conversation if someone takes a screenshot, effectively letting them know their privacy might have been breached.

The key is to watch for the .UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshot message to be posted, which will happen whenever a screenshot happens. For example, this runs a screenshotTaken() method:

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(screenshotTaken), name: .UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshot, object: nil)

And this just prints a log message instead:

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: .UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshot, object: nil, queue: OperationQueue.main) { notification in
    print("Screenshot taken!")
}

Use whichever of those two fits your needs best.

Available from iOS 7.0

Did this solution work for you? Please pass it on!

Tweet

Other people are reading…

• How to send an email
• How to hide the home indicator on iPhone X
• How to make UICollectionView headers stay fixed using sectionHeadersPinToVisibleBounds
• How to fix Auto Layout problems
• How set different widths for a UISegmentedControl's elements

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.