Introducing ScreenShield — iOS Screenshot-Prevention for Confide, and Beyond
At Confide, our goal is to make digital communication as private and secure as the spoken word. That’s why our messages are not only end-to-end encrypted and ephemeral, but they’re also as screenshot-protected as possible. On Android, Mac, and PC, we have been able to prevent screenshots altogether. On iOS, this has not been technically feasible. Our patented reading experience has protected against iOS screenshots by only allowing the recipient to capture a single line of text or a sliver of an image or document. But we have always wanted to do better — to make iOS completely screenshot-proof across all media formats — text, images, videos, documents, stickers, and more. And with the introduction of our ScreenShield technology, we finally have.
ScreenShield for Confide
ScreenShield is a patent-pending technology that allows you to view an app’s content on your screen but prevents you from taking a screenshot of it. If you try to take a screenshot on Confide, you will now simply capture a blank screen¹. ScreenShield also protects against other forms of screen capture, including iOS 11 screen recording, AirPlay screen mirroring, QuickTime screen recording as well as taking screenshots from the app switcher or by using Xcode.
ScreenShieldKit
We initially developed ScreenShield for Confide, but quickly realized that it could be used in a large number of apps — far more than we could build ourselves. That’s why we created ScreenShieldKit — to offer the ScreenShield technology to 3rd-party developers for use in a variety of different apps and categories.
While there’s a lot of technology under the hood that makes ScreenShield possible, the great news is that there are no strange gimmicks for users (e.g., it doesn’t require them to hold their finger on the screen) — it just works as expected. And ScreenShieldKit is simple for developers to integrate into their iOS apps, providing easy to use replacements for UITextView and UIImageView.
We envision ScreenShieldKit being used in apps that utilize secure messaging, secure file sharing, virtual data rooms, and DRM or watermarking. But we’re also excited to see completely new and innovative apps being created now that screenshot-proof technology exists for iOS app developers.
Download the latest version of Confide to see ScreenShield in action, or contact us if you would like to integrate ScreenShieldKit into your app.
[1] Since ScreenShield for iOS is a brand new technology, it is only supported when the message recipient is using a recent version of the Confide app. But don’t worry, older versions of Confide are still screenshot-protected by our reading experience.
