How I Built an iPhone Theft Detection System Using Motion Sensors and Screen Time APIs

About this episode

The episode discusses the creation of an iPhone theft detection system using motion sensors and Screen Time APIs.

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/how-i-built-an-iphone-theft-detection-system-using-motion-sensors-and-screen-time-apis . How I built phone snatch detection for iOS using accelerometer, Screen Time API, and a background location hack. No ML, no hardware. Check more stories related to programming at: https://hackernoon.com/c/programming . You can also check exclusive content about #mobile-app-development , #ios-app-development , #swiftui , #mobile-security , #theft-detection-software , #ios-background-tasks , #cmmotionmanager , #iphone-security , and more. This story was written by: @olegmmv . Learn more about this writer by checking @olegmmv's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com . Android shipped Theft Detection Lock in 2024. Apple still has nothing. I built a free iOS app that detects phone grabs via accelerometer and locks selected apps using Screen Time shields. The technical rabbit holes: CMMotionActivityManager turned out useless (reports "Unknown" instead of "Running"), background execution requires a location manager hack to keep the process alive, Screen Time API has two token types you need to apply…

Topics covered

• iOS development
• mobile security
• theft detection
• motion sensors
• Screen Time API
• app development

Keywords

• iPhone theft detection
• accelerometer
• mobile app development
• iOS background tasks
• theft detection software
• CMMotionManager
• iPhone security

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HackerNoon, Android, Apple

Products: iPhone, Screen Time API, CMMotionActivityManager, Face ID

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