A camera for the dark. Shoot photos and video on iPhone and iPad while the screen stays completely black. Version 1.5.7
Blackout Camera is a professional camera built for dark environments — astrophotography, meteor showers, the aurora, long-exposure landscapes, observatories, night wildlife, and anywhere a glowing phone screen would ruin the moment or other people's shots. It records like the standard camera — in four modes, Photo, Video, Time-lapse and Astro — but with one tap (or automatically the instant you start recording) the screen goes fully black while the camera keeps shooting. There's also a red night-vision mode and a full set of manual controls for serious low-light work. It's free to download and use for photos and video; the signature black-screen mode and the pro tools are described under Plans & ads below.
The big idea: Press Screen Off and the display turns black and dims to nothing — but the camera keeps recording. To bring the screen back, press and hold anywhere for about a second. The hold is deliberate so the screen can't wake by accident on a tripod or in your pocket.
Tap the Screen Off button. The interface disappears, the screen turns black, and screen brightness drops to its minimum so the display emits as little light as possible. On OLED iPhones, black pixels are effectively switched off.
The camera keeps doing exactly what it was doing — a photo session stays ready, and a video recording keeps rolling. If you like, a very dim red “REC” dot confirms a recording is in progress, and a faint “Hold to wake” hint sits at the bottom. Both can be turned off in Settings for total darkness.
Press and hold anywhere for about a second. A quick tap won't do it — that's on purpose, so a stray touch can't light up your screen mid-shot.
By default, starting a video recording blacks the screen immediately. You can turn this off in Settings → Screen Off → “Black screen when recording starts.”
Tap the moon icon to wash the entire interface in deep red and dim the screen. Red light preserves your eyes' dark adaptation far better than white or blue light, so you can glance at the screen to frame or adjust a shot without losing your night vision — useful at the telescope or around other astrophotographers.
With Blackout Pro, tap the sliders icon to open the manual panel:
Tap AUTO on any control to hand it back to the camera.
These gestures work for everyone, free:
You can turn the brightness control and press-and-hold lock on or off in Settings → Focus & Exposure. On iPhone 16 and later you can map the hardware Camera Control to zoom and your manual adjustments.
Photos use Apple's computational photography, and in Settings → Photo you can mirror front-camera selfies, and Blackout Pro adds your sensor's maximum resolution (up to 48 MP on supported iPhones) and Apple ProRAW (a high-bit-depth DNG) where your device supports it. Photo capture at the standard 12 MP is free for everyone. Video records up to 4K at 60 fps with multiple cinematic stabilization levels. On Pro iPhones, Blackout Pro unlocks ProRes, Apple Log, and HDR capture where your device supports them. Captures are saved to Apple Photos, the app’s own in-app Library, the Private Folder on Pro, or any combination of them, as you choose in Settings → Saving & Privacy → Save to. When Apple Photos is one of those destinations the app uses “Add Only” access, so it can add new captures but never reads your existing library.
Open Settings → Audio to choose how video sound is recorded — all free:
Tap the thumbnail in the bottom-left corner to open the Library — a gallery of everything you've captured with Blackout Camera, grouped by day with a photo/video filter. Tap any item for a full-screen viewer with pinch-to-zoom, video playback, share, and per-item info (date, size, resolution, duration, and location). Swipe up for the info panel, swipe down to close. The Library keeps the app's own copies of your captures, separate from Apple Photos — so removing something here only removes the app's copy and never touches your Photos library.
Open Settings → Saving & Privacy and tick any combination of destinations under Save to. Each capture is saved to every destination you tick, and at least one must stay on:
Ticking both Apple Photos and the In-App Library keeps two copies, so it uses roughly twice the space. If Apple Photos is off, your captures exist only inside the app — and in-app copies are removed if you delete the app, so back up anything important.
From version 1.5.5, Blackout Pro adds a Private Folder: a locked folder inside Blackout Camera that new captures can be saved into instead of your photo library. Opening it needs Face ID (or Touch ID), and if that fails, iOS offers your iPhone passcode — the same fallback you get everywhere else on the system. It re-locks whenever you leave the app.
It leads the Library screen as a labelled card, and it is also reachable from Settings → Saving & Privacy. You can move existing captures in or out of it from the Library — moving in takes the file with it rather than leaving a copy behind in the unlocked Library.
Add the Blackout Camera widget to your Home Screen, or the control to Control Center or the Lock Screen, and one tap opens the app and starts a black-screen recording immediately — ideal for pocket-to-recording moments. By default it uses your current camera settings; you can give quick recordings their own resolution, frame rate, and stabilization in Settings → Quick Record.
With Save location data on (Settings → Metadata), your photos and videos are geotagged like the built-in Camera. A small GPS indicator near the top of the camera shows when a location fix is ready, and the in-app Library's info panel shows the coordinates and place for each capture. Location is only added when you allow it, and only to your own captures.
Blackout Camera is free to download, and photo and video capture are free for everyone. From version 1.5.5, a Blackout Pro subscription is the only way to unlock the signature black-screen recording and the pro tools; the free tier is supported by ads. Tokens — the free tier's old currency — are being retired: they can no longer be earned or bought, but any balance you already have keeps working exactly as before until it runs out.
Blackout Pro comes as a monthly or annual subscription with a free trial, and subscribers never see ads. Manage your plan — renewal date, switching between monthly and annual, restoring purchases, or cancelling — on the Membership page in Settings (cancellation is also available any time in your Apple Account settings). Prices are always shown in the app in your local currency.
If you're signed in to iCloud, any remaining free-tier token balance syncs privately across your own iPhone and iPad through your Apple Account, so the tokens you have left follow you between devices as you spend them. (From version 1.5.5 new tokens can no longer be earned or bought — existing balances are honoured until they run out.) This uses your own private iCloud storage — see the Privacy Policy.
Yes. The screen going black is purely a display change — the camera session keeps running and video keeps recording the whole time.
Press and hold anywhere on the black screen for about a second. A single tap is ignored on purpose so you can't wake it by accident.
No — locking the phone or pressing the side button suspends the app and stops the camera. Use the in-app Screen Off button instead, which keeps the camera running while the display is black. The app also keeps your phone from auto-locking while it's open.
The camera is needed to take photos and record video; the microphone is needed to record sound with your videos. Nothing is ever uploaded — see the Privacy Policy.
If you record during a phone call, iOS gives the call exclusive use of the microphone, so the video records without audio. The app shows a dim red “No audio” warning while this happens, and the clip stays silent for its whole length even if the call ends partway through. End the call before recording to capture sound.
Wherever you choose in Settings → Saving & Privacy → Save to: your device's Apple Photos library, the app's own In-App Library, the Private Folder on Pro, or any combination of them. Apple Photos is the default. The app uses “Add Only” Photos access, so it can add new captures but cannot see your existing photos. At least one destination must stay ticked — the app will not let you switch the last one off, because that would silently discard the shot you just took. In-app copies (the In-App Library and the Private Folder) are removed if you delete the app, so keep Apple Photos on for anything you want backed up.
The Private Folder is a Pro feature that saves captures into a locked folder inside Blackout Camera instead of your photo library, opened with Face ID or your iPhone passcode. A capture is only hidden when the Private Folder is the sole destination you have ticked — if Apple Photos or the In-App Library is also on, the same capture exists in an unlocked place as well. When the Private Folder is the only ticked destination nothing is copied to Apple Photos, so the folder holds the only copy and deleting an item there is permanent. If you also tick Apple Photos or the In-App Library, that same capture exists in an unlocked place too. If your Pro subscription ends you keep full access to everything already inside, including exporting it and moving it back out; only saving new captures there needs Pro.
Blackout Camera lowers screen brightness while you're in black or night-vision mode and restores it when you leave. If brightness ever seems stuck, exit the app and adjust brightness in Control Center; it is always restored when you close the app.
Open Settings → Membership in the app to see your plan, renewal date, and price, switch between monthly and annual, restore a purchase on a new device, or open Apple's subscription management. You can also manage or cancel any time in iOS Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled; cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep access until the current period ends.
If a renewal charge is declined — an expired card, a bank refusal, or a card that needs re-authorising — Apple stops the subscription and retries in the background for a while. From version 1.5.4, Blackout Camera tells you: a banner appears on the Settings, Membership and upgrade screens explaining that your subscription is on hold, with an Update Payment Method button that opens Apple's subscription settings. Fixing the payment method there restores your subscription automatically — there is nothing to buy again, and Restore Purchases cannot fix a declined payment. Before 1.5.4 the app said nothing, so access simply stopped.
Tokens were the free tier's in-app currency for black-screen recording and the premium video options (4K, 60 fps, stronger stabilization). From version 1.5.5 they are being retired: they can no longer be earned or bought — no daily bonus, no token packs, and no ad to watch for tokens. Any tokens you already hold keep working exactly as before until they run out, and they still don't expire. When your balance reaches zero — or if you never had one — black-screen recording and the premium video options need Blackout Pro. Turning the screen off on its own, while you're not recording, stays free for everyone. Subscribers never needed tokens: Pro includes unlimited black-screen recording. Tokens are consumable and non-refundable once spent.
Please email mwsupplylimited@gmail.com with your iOS version, device, and steps to reproduce. We read every message.
For support: mwsupplylimited@gmail.com
See the Blackout Camera Privacy Policy.