TouchShield for PC

TouchShield is a touchscreen blocker.

It locks your device to a specific app and disables the touchscreen.

It's different from other apps as it doesn't just lock the touchscreen, it also disables the notification area and navigation buttons. This makes it much harder to exit a blocked app by accident.

TouchShield is built with the idea of toddler-proofing the phone. It prevents toddlers from interacting with the blocked app (e.g. changing the video that is being played, exiting the app, and opening other apps).

HOW TO USE THE APP

1. Launch the TouchShield app. It will open in minimized (picture-in-picture) mode.
2. Launch the app that you want to shield from touches.
3. Click the TouchShield picture-in-picture window and then the shown fullscreen button.
4. Allow the app to be pinned as this will disable navigation buttons and notification area.
5. That's it. Touch input should now be blocked.

To go back to the minimized picture-in-picture window or to exit the app:
1. Click anywhere on the TouchShield blocked screen
2. Long-click the shield icon that has now been shown in the center of the screen.
3. Drag the icon into the down-right "Minimise" rectangle or down-left "Exit" rectangle to trigger the selected action.

DISCLAIMER

Works well with most apps (e.g. YouTube, Netflix, Joyn, CleanTube…), but NOT ALL! For example, the YouTube Kids app pauses the video when TouchShield becomes active. This is something that we can not fix on our side.

APPS THAT HAVE PICTURE-IN-PICTURE

If the (video) app supports picture-in-picture. It needs to be disabled for TouchShield to work. This can be done by:
1. Long-clicking the app (e.g Netflix) launcher icon
2. Clicking "App Info" button
3. Turning off the "Picture-in-picture" setting

It can be turned back on later, when you want to use the app with picture-in-picture mode, without TouchShield.

TIPS

#1: Have a screen lock

If you don't use a PIN, pattern, fingerprint, or something else for unlocking your device, consider adding it.

Unlocking the device by only swiping the screen is not secure (if you lose your phone or leave it unattended, anyone can access your apps, photos, and other personal data). Also, on some devices, TouchShield pinning mode (locking navigation buttons and notification area) might not work when the screen lock is not set.

#2: Confirm pinned mode

On most devices, pinned mode can be confirmed by clicking anywhere on the screen, except the "No thanks" button.

No need to focus on clicking the small "Got it" button every time.

#3: Add extra security to app pinning

It's possible to lock the device whenever TouchShield gets minimized or exited.

To do this you can go to the device Settings and search for "App pinning". Check that app pinning and "Lock device when unpinning" options are enabled.

This can be used to make sure that a toddler (or an older kid) can not access other apps when they learn how to EXIT or MINIMISE the TouchShield app.

#4: Use button navigation

If you are using gesture navigation, switching to button navigation might make it a bit harder for toddlers to disable pinning mode by accident as 2 buttons need to be pressed at the same time. With gesture navigation, on most devices, it's enough to swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

To try out button navigation you can search for "Navigation" in device settings to make the switch.