Last week, I showed off a deeply buried accessibility feature built into iOS 7 and 8 that lets you disable screen touches in certain apps. While useful for many reasons, I found it most helpful for preventing nosy family and friends from swiping through the Camera Roll when showing them a photo.
Unfortunately, that method only lets you show off one picture at a time. So, what if there’s a whole album of pictures you want to show somebody from vacation or a road trip, but you still don’t want them to have access to your entire Camera Roll?
Overswipe, from developer team Haley & Hughes, allows you to select multiple photos that you want to share with someone on your iPhone while keeping them from swiping into something embarrassing or incriminating.
After installing Overswipe from the iOS App Store, open it up and grant it access to your photos. Then, just select the pictures you want to show off from your Camera Roll. You can select up to five photographs to show at once, but you can increase that by getting the pro version of Overswipe for $0.99 via an in-app purchase.
Once you select the pictures, tap on “Display” and a private gallery with your chosen photos will appear. Hand the phone over and the viewer will only be able the view the photos in the Overswipe gallery.
Technically, they could press the Home button and head over to your Photos app, but who would actually do that? If you’re worried about it, though, the pro version has passcode security to prevent your nosy friends from exiting the app.
Since I don’t particularly show off a slew of pictures to friends and family, five photographs at a time is befitting of my needs. And while there’s a small worry of having someone exit the app and into the Camera Roll itself, it’s much easier to notice and catch them in the act.
Just updated your iPhone? You’ll find new emoji, enhanced security, podcast transcripts, Apple Cash virtual numbers, and other useful features. There are even new additions hidden within Safari. Find out what’s new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.4 update.
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