Screen Accountability

Set up LivingRoom screen accountability on an Adult's iPhone or iPad.

Use the LivingRoom screen monitoring app on an adult's iPhone or iPad without using Apple Family.

Ben

Updated November 25, 2025

LivingRoom is a screen monitoring app for iPhone and iPad. It records the screen while the iOS device is in use, saving screenshots of activity to a dashboard for a parent or accountability partner to review.

The app is incredibly effective for iOS monitoring since it captures screenshots of all activity on the device, no matter what what app is being used.

If you want to use this app on an adult's device, or a child's device that can't get access to Apple Family, the setup process requires a few different steps. I'll show you exactly how in this guide.

Get Started

The LivingRoom app currently caters to parents managing a child's iPhone or iPad, but adults have also repurposed the parental monitoring app into a comprehensive screen accountability app.

In this guide, I'll be setting up LivingRoom on my own iPhone. I'll focus on ensuring that I can't bypass it without help from my accountability partner.

Step 1: Turn on Device Supervision

Check if the iPhone or iPad you are setting up with LivingRoom is supervised.

Open iPhone settings and look for a "this iPhone is supervised" message at the top

The device must be supervised. If it isn't, don't worry! The setup process only takes between 5-10 minutes.

Follow along with our YouTube video showing how to enable Supervised Mode :

Step 2: Download Config

Open your Tech Lockdown account and access the Config Editor

Select the iOS config editor, which is used to configure a supervised iPhone or iPad.

In the Apps tab, toggle on the option to Use LivingRoom

Sync config to the device you want to set up LivingRoom on.

Step 3: Set up LivingRoom

We'll follow similar instructions detailed in the guide to setting up LivingRoom on a child's iOS device .

Keep in mind a few things:

LivingRoom uses "parent" and "child" terminology. In the case where an adult is using LivingRoom for accountability, the "parent" should be set to the accountability partner.
The "child" is the adult seeking accountability.

1) Create LivingRoom account

Create a LivingRoom account .

If you are setting this account up for yourself and will switch it over to an accountability partner later on, you'll need to share the login with your accountability partner later on. Then, they should change the account password so that you can't access it (for strict accountability situations).

2) Get Connection Code

In the admin account dashboard, add a "child". This should be your name if you are setting it up for yourself. Otherwise, set it to the name of the adult who is seeking accountability.

Now you'll need to install the LivingRoom app on the iPhone or iPad that you want to set up screen accountability on.

If you are viewing this guide on a computer, use the iPhone camera to scan this QR code to open the LivingRoom App Store page and install it:

Otherwise, if viewing this guide from the iOS device, click this link to open the LivingRoom app store page .

Back in the admin dashboard, click Get connection code to generate the PIN needed to connect the device.

3) Connect Adult's Device

When you open the LivingRoom app on the adult's iPhone or iPad, you should see this screen acknowledging that you are setting up LivingRoom on an iOS device that has Supervised Mode :

If you don't see this screen, try closing and re-opening the app.

Continue through the app onboarding screens.

When prompted, enter the Connection Code that was displayed in the LivingRoom admin dashboard after you clicked Get Connection Code.

Make sure that notifications are enabled so that it's more efficient to start the screen recorder when accessing a blocked app.

Step 4: Excluding apps from requiring screen recording

There are probably some apps on your device that are completely safe to use without supervision and shouldn't require screen recording. LivingRoom lets you customize Always Allowed Apps to exclude some apps from the screen recording requirement. We recommend adding those apps as exceptions.

Here's how to do that.

Go into Screen Time > Always Allowed and add those apps to the Allowed Apps section.

In the LivingRoom dashboard, edit the child's settings and add the same apps to the Internet Always Allowed list .

App exceptions must be added to both lists

An app must be included in both Screen Time's always allowed apps list and LivingRoom's Internet Always Allowed Apps list to properly exclude it from the screen recording requirement.

Step 5: Protect LivingRoom from being Removed

Once you've tested out LivingRoom on the device, and have confirmed you want to use it, you'll need to lock down some of the loopholes to prevent LivingRoom from being uninstalled or bypassed by turning off the Content Filter.

Activate your LivingRoom subscription before preventing LivingRoom from being uninstalled

If you are still on the free trial for LivingRoom, we highly recommend activating your subscription before continuing. If your subscription expires, apps on your device might be inaccessible until you activate your subscription. Activate your subscription now to prevent potentially being locked out in the future!

In your LivingRoom account , go to Settings and click Start subscription.

Go back to the iOS config editor in the Tech Lockdown dashboard under the Apps tab

To ensure that the LivingRoom app can't be deleted, which would bypass it entirely, you'll need to scroll down and toggle off Allow Deleting Apps

Go to the Config Preferences tab and customize Removal Protection

Choose an option for protecting the config from removal.

After customizing the removal option, turn on Protect config from removal

Sync to Device

Follow the instructions to upgrade the config.

How to Uninstall LivingRoom

These uninstall instructions only apply if you've set up LivingRoom using the instructions stated in this guide.

In your Tech Lockdown account, go back to the iOS config editor to the Apps tab. Toggle off the option to Use LivingRoom

Scroll down and toggle on Allow Deleting Apps

Sync to Device

Now you can uninstall the LivingRoom app by long pressing the app icon and tapping Remove App.

Prevent yourself from uninstalling LivingRoom

Here's how you can prevent yourself from modifying the iOS config in the Tech Lockdown dashboard to make it possible to delete LivingRoom.

Instructions only apply if you are self-managing LivingRoom

If you are a spouse/accountability partner with a Tech Lockdown account configuring another adult's device, then these instructions aren't needed if you are the only one with the login to the Tech Lockdown account.

Click the Unlocked button in the sidebar

Tap manage preferences

Customize Unlock Steps. We recommend using the Email Pin option so that an accountability partner must be involved in you unlocking your Tech Lockdown profile.

Lock your Tech Lockdown Profile

Go back to the iOS config editor and open the editor preferences

Turn on the Profile Locking restrictions editor preference

Try de-selecting Use LivingRoom, and enabling Allow Deleting Apps. You should get an error prompting you to unlock your Tech Lockdown profile to change those options.

To toggle these switches again, you'll need to unlock your Tech Lockdown profile by clicking the lock button.

You'll need to enter the pin sent to your accountability partner to finish unlocking your profile, or random text, or anything else you set up as an unlock step.