Locking the iPad
Hyvä POS is in closed beta
Hyvä POS is currently in a closed beta (pilot phase) with a small group of merchants. It is not yet generally available: the App Store release follows the pilot, and features and configuration may still change - possibly in backwards-incompatible ways - before the general release. Want to take part? Sign up at hyva.io/pos.
Hyvä POS is an app on a general-purpose tablet. Nothing in the app stops someone from swiping to the home screen and opening Safari, the Photos library, or iOS Settings - and on a counter iPad that is a real risk: staff wandering off during a quiet hour, a customer handed the device to sign or enter an email address, or a self-checkout kiosk standing unattended in the store.
Locking the device is an iPad setting, not an app setting. There are two ways to do it, and they solve different problems:
| Guided Access | Single App Mode (MDM) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Built into iPadOS, free | Needs an MDM and supervised devices |
| Set up | Per device, by hand | Centrally, per device group |
| Survives a restart | No - staff must start it again | Yes - the iPad boots back into the app |
| Best for | A counter register, a handover moment, a single kiosk | Fleets, and any unattended kiosk |
Guided Access: One-Time Setup
Do this once per iPad:
- Open Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access and turn it on.
- Tap Passcode Settings → Set Guided Access Passcode and set a code. Give it to managers only - it is the way back out of the locked app.
- In the same panel, turn on Face ID or Touch ID if you would rather unlock with a look or a fingerprint than type the code at a busy counter.
Pair your hardware first. Guided Access blocks iOS Settings, so anything that needs pairing there - Bluetooth printers, Bluetooth scanners, some card readers - must be paired before you lock the device. Peripherals that connect through the app (USB-C and network printers, MFi scanners) are unaffected.
Starting a Session
- Open Hyvä POS and get it to the screen you want staff or customers to land on.
- Triple-click the top button (the Home button on iPads that have one).
- Tap Options in the bottom-left corner and set what stays available:
| Option | Counter register | Self-checkout kiosk |
|---|---|---|
| Touch | On | On |
| Keyboards | On - staff type discounts, notes, search | On - customers type an email address for a receipt |
| Sleep/Wake Button | Your call | Off - so nobody can blank the screen |
| Volume Buttons | Your call | Off |
| Time Limit | Off | Off - a time limit ends the session |
- Tap Start.
The app now owns the screen. The home gesture, app switcher, Control Center and notifications from other apps are all unavailable until someone ends the session.
Ending a Session
Triple-click the top button (or Home button) again, authenticate with the Guided Access passcode, Face ID or Touch ID, then tap End.
Keep the Screen On and the Battery Full
A register that dims mid-sale, or a kiosk showing a black screen, reads as broken:
- Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never keeps the screen awake.
- Keep the iPad on power. The one-cable counter setups power the iPad over USB-C from the receipt printer, which covers this without another adapter.
The Restart Caveat
A Guided Access session ends when the iPad restarts. After a power cut or an iPadOS update the device comes back on the home screen, unlocked, with Guided Access still enabled but not running - someone has to triple-click to start it again.
For a staffed register that is fine: the first person to pick it up notices. For an unattended kiosk it is not - which is why fleets and permanent kiosks belong in Single App Mode.
Single App Mode Through an MDM
If you already run an MDM (Jamf, Mosyle, Intune, Kandji, SimpleMDM and others all support this), lock the device centrally instead:
- Supervise the iPad - through Apple Business Manager at purchase, or with Apple Configurator on a Mac. Single App Mode only works on supervised devices.
- Push a Single App Mode (sometimes called App Lock or Kiosk) profile that pins the device to Hyvä POS.
The iPad then boots straight into Hyvä POS and re-locks itself after every restart, with no staff action. Ending the lock is an MDM action, so nobody at the counter can leave the app at all.
The app cannot lock or unlock itself
Autonomous Single App Mode - where an app puts the device in and out of kiosk mode on its own - is not supported by Hyvä POS. The lock is always something you control from iPadOS or your MDM, never something the app decides.
How This Fits With the App's Own Locks
Device locking sits underneath the locks inside Hyvä POS, and they do different jobs:
- Guided Access passcode or MDM profile - keeps the device inside the app. Manager-held.
- Staff login and screen lock - who is selling, and locking the register when someone steps away. The app still runs; the register is just locked.
- Self-checkout exit PIN - leaves the kiosk interface and returns to a staffed register.
A self-checkout kiosk uses all three: the exit PIN gets staff out of the kiosk UI, and the Guided Access passcode or MDM profile gets them out of the app. Without the device-level lock the exit PIN protects the app while the home gesture walks straight past it.