Turning an iPhone into a Mupi
For a phone that is not going back to being a phone. This one takes an afternoon and a Mac or PC.
What this does
A supervised iPhone can be told to run one app and nothing else. Turn it on and it is a camera. There is no home screen to get back to, and no way out without the setup being undone.
Before you start
- The phone is erased in the process. Do not use one with anything on it you want.
- You need a Mac, or a device-management tool on Windows.
- Give yourself an hour the first time.
The shape of it
- Erase the iPhone.
- Supervise it while setting it up, using Apple Configurator on a Mac.
- Install Mupi and sign in to iCloud so photos can back up.
- Set Mupi as the single app the device is allowed to run.
Worth knowing
- This is Apple's supervision, not something Mupi controls. Mupi is simply the app you point it at.
- A dedicated camera does not use less battery by itself. Mupi stops the camera when it is idle, which is what actually helps.
- If this sounds like more than you want, use Guided Access instead. It is two taps and undoes itself.