UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification: the complete guide (iOS)

UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification is the iOS API most developers find when they want to detect that a user took a screenshot.

It is useful, but it has sharp boundaries. It tells you that a screenshot happened. It does not give you the image, fire before capture, or let you block the user from taking the screenshot.

What is UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification?

UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification is a notification posted by iOS after the user takes a screenshot. Apps can register an observer for this notification and respond after the capture, for example by opening a bug report UI, showing a confirmation, or recording an analytics event. The notification is informational only: it does not include the screenshot image and it does not allow the app to cancel the screenshot.

How to observe it

In Swift, register an observer with NotificationCenter:

final class ScreenshotObserver {
    private var token: NSObjectProtocol?

    func start() {
        token = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
            forName: UIApplication.userDidTakeScreenshotNotification,
            object: nil,
            queue: .main
        ) { _ in
            print("User took a screenshot")
        }
    }

    func stop() {
        if let token {
            NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(token)
        }
    }
}

In Objective-C:

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                         selector:@selector(userDidTakeScreenshot:)
                                             name:UIApplicationUserDidTakeScreenshotNotification
                                           object:nil];

Remove observers when the owning object is deallocated or no longer needs screenshot events.

What it fires on

User action	Does it fire?	Notes
Hardware screenshot	Yes	Posted after the screenshot is taken
Assistive screenshot action	Yes	Treated as a user screenshot
Screen recording starts	No	Use screen capture APIs instead
Screen is mirrored or captured	No	Check UIScreen.isCaptured for capture state
App attempts to take its own snapshot	No	This is not a user screenshot notification
Simulator screenshot	Usually yes for simulated user screenshots	Verify your test path on the simulator version you use

You cannot get the screenshot image from the notification

This is the gotcha. The notification tells you that a screenshot happened, but the notification payload does not contain the saved screenshot.

If you need an image for a bug report, you have two common options. You can ask for Photos access and locate the recent screenshot, or you can capture your app's current view yourself after the notification. Both approaches have product and privacy tradeoffs, so be explicit about what you collect and why.

Version and privacy considerations

Use public APIs only. Screenshot detection is allowed, but users should understand why your app is reacting to screenshots. A bug reporting flow is a clear use case: the screenshot is treated as the start of a report that the user can review before submitting.

Do not assume screenshot detection is a security boundary. iOS allows users to capture their screen, and this notification is not a prevention mechanism.

Using it for bug reporting

BugScreen uses iOS screenshot detection as a low-friction trigger for bug reporting. When a tester takes a screenshot, the app can open a native reporting flow, let the tester add a short note, and send the report to the tracker with device and build context.

For the broader concept, read how screenshot detection works on iOS. For SDK setup, see the iOS docs.