Cook with Kre

How to Keep Your iPhone Screen On While Cooking

Updated

If your phone screen turns off while cooking, there are three ways to keep your iPhone screen on: lengthen Auto-Lock in Settings before you start, lock the phone to your recipe with Guided Access, or cook from an app that keeps the screen awake by itself. Then stand the phone where you can read it without touching it, so a dark screen matters less.

Change Auto-Lock while you cook

Your iPhone locks after a short idle spell to protect your data and save battery. That’s sensible on the bus and maddening when your hands are covered in raw chicken and the ingredient list has just gone dark.

The direct fix is the Auto-Lock setting:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap Display & Brightness, then Auto-Lock.
  3. Choose a longer time.

Two things to know before you rely on it. Apple notes that delaying or preventing Auto-Lock can increase power consumption, so plug the phone in for a long braise. And Low Power Mode sets Auto-Lock to 30 seconds while it’s on. If the screen keeps going dark after you changed the setting, check for a yellow battery icon in the status bar.

The catch with a long Auto-Lock is remembering to change it back. A phone that stays unlocked in your pocket wakes up and taps things. Make switching it back part of clearing up, along with wiping the counter.

Guided Access for a locked-in recipe

Guided Access is an accessibility feature that restricts iPhone to a single app until you end the session. In the kitchen it does two useful jobs: it stops a stray knuckle from swiping you out of the recipe, and it has its own Auto-Lock setting, so the screen can stay on during the session without touching your everyday setting.

Set it up once, in Settings › Accessibility › Guided Access:

  • Turn on Guided Access.
  • Under Passcode Settings, set a Guided Access passcode, or turn on Face ID or Touch ID to end sessions.
  • Tap Display Auto-Lock and choose how long the screen stays on during a session.

To cook with it, open the recipe, then start a session: ask Siri to “Turn on Guided Access”, use Control Center if you’ve added it there, or use the Accessibility Shortcut. You can circle parts of the screen to disable them, which helps if there’s a banner or link you keep brushing with a wrist. Tap Start. When you’re done, triple-click the side button (or the Home button on older models), then enter the passcode or use Face ID or Touch ID.

One caution from Apple’s own page: Crash Detection and Emergency Services aren’t available during a Guided Access session. End the session when the cooking’s over rather than leaving it running.

Apps that keep the screen awake

Many apps already stop the phone locking while you’re actively using them: maps during navigation, video players and reading apps among them. Some recipe and cooking apps do the same on their cooking screen. If the one you use lets the screen lock, look in its settings for a keep-awake option before you change your phone’s system settings.

When you choose an app for this, check two things:

  • When does it keep the screen on? Only while you’re actually cooking from a recipe is better than all the time the app is open.
  • Does it let go when you’re finished? The phone should go back to locking normally when you leave the recipe, so there’s nothing to undo afterwards.

Cook with Kre keeps the phone awake while a meal is live on the cooking screen and the app is open, and the phone may lock again when you leave. It’s built voice first: Kre talks you through the meal and the screen is a backup for when you want to check something. See how Kre cooks with you.

Cooking without looking

A screen that stays on still has to be read, and peering at a phone across a hot stove isn’t ideal either. The less you need to look, the less Auto-Lock matters.

  • Read the recipe through once before you start. The screen then becomes a reminder rather than your only copy of the plan.
  • Stand the phone up at eye level, at the back of the counter and away from splashes and steam, rather than flat beside the hob.
  • Write the numbers down. Oven temperature, timings and the two or three amounts you’ll need mid-cook fit on a sticky note on the cupboard door.
  • Use your voice for small jobs. Siri can set a timer while your hands are busy, without unlocking anything. The guide to cooking hands-free compares smart speakers, phone dictation and voice cooking apps.
  • Wash and dry your hands before you touch the screen. Raw meat and egg on your fingers end up on the glass; a quick wash before you scroll keeps the phone out of the food-safety picture.

If you cook from a tablet instead, the same settings apply, and a bigger screen changes where it should go. See cooking from an iPad for stands, splashes and text size.

Sources

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