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iOS 7.1 Camera Trick Lets You Take Sneaky Photos with Your iPhone

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As with iOS 7.0.X, iOS 7.1 still allows users to take sneaky photos using a trick with the Camera app that was discovered shortly after iOS 7’s release. It’s most likely a bug that Apple still hasn’t fixed, even with the release of iOS 7.1.

A lot of places prohibit people from taking photos and video, like at concerts or art galleries, which can be a huge bummer, especially if you wanted to share that moment with friends and family who can’t be there. There are plenty of iPhone apps out there that allow users to take photos without the camera viewfinder showing, especially on jailbroken devices, but this neat trick in iOS 7.1 makes all of these apps obsolete.

iPhone 6 camera

We first spotted this neat trick back in November, and it’s an easy hack that allows you to take photos with the Camera app without having the app actively open or the viewfinder even showing. Here’s how to do it.

  • Open up the Camera app and immediately after doing that, double-tap on the Home button to open up the app switcher. You should see the Camera app in the app switcher still live and the viewfinder still working.
  • You can now explore your app switcher and scroll through your open apps while the Camera app is still live. You can even access the notification tray from the app switcher by swiping down from the top of the screen. This completely hides the Camera app while still keeping it open and ready to take pictures.
  • To simply take a photo, press the Volume Up or Volume Down button (since the shutter button in the Camera app is hidden, obviously).

Word of warning, though: this trick didn’t work for everyone here at Gotta Be Mobile. Doing this led to a random reboot for some people, but it works perfectly for others running iOS 7.1. Furthermore, this trick also works on the iPad. We can confirm that it works on the iPad 4, the iPad Air, and the iPad mini with Retina display, but it didn’t work on the third-generation iPad.

With this trick, people that are looking over your shoulder will simply think that you’re looking at your notifications or seeing what apps are in your app switcher, but in reality, you’re actually taking pictures without anyone noticing. Of course, you’re on your own as far as the risk you take when you do this. If you’re in an art gallery and simply pull out your phone, security may just assume that you’re going to take a photo, so be warned.

11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Sieben

    03/27/2014 at 12:03 pm

    iPhone 5 64 GB iOs 7.1. Doesn’t work.

  2. josh smith

    03/27/2014 at 6:21 pm

    Actually Work -iPhone 5 16 GB -7.1 At&t –

  3. Sean

    03/27/2014 at 9:35 pm

    Verizon 16gb 4s works

  4. William

    03/30/2014 at 6:17 am

    This also works on ipad4th generation too lol great trick

  5. Dd

    06/07/2014 at 11:57 pm

    Works on Ipad 3 ios 7.1.1

  6. staninfrance

    08/03/2014 at 2:33 am

    It works for me, but it makes the camera sound, which could reveal that a photo is being taken.

    • Erik B

      08/22/2014 at 2:33 pm

      turn the sound off. (push the mute switch back so the red is showing – no sound)

  7. Ashlie

    09/27/2014 at 9:58 pm

    Works on 4s. !! Love it!! 7.1.2. Cannot and will not do 8.anything bc of 4.7gb storage
    7.1.2 works great for me!

  8. Leo

    10/12/2014 at 11:46 am

    Worked on iPad mini with retina on iOS 8.0.2

  9. Carl

    10/19/2014 at 1:27 pm

    I bought my iPhone 5s upfront and put my GoPhone SIM card into it. Most months I paid the $25/month, wifi-only plan. Now they have the 10¢/minute plan also available. Some 75-80% of the time I am already in a wifi zone, or I am driving and don’t need the added distraction of all my apps going off. I rarely get $10 in minutes and texts deducted from my account on average per month, the amount I need to add monthly to keep my account active.

  10. Piersonrife

    03/06/2015 at 10:10 am

    I know this is an old article, but I just tried it and it works on my iPhone 6 Plus 64gb with iOS 8.1.3.

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