iOS UIScreen has brightness property. Setting it to a different value updates screen brightness. But after lock / unlock screen brightness is restored to whatever brightness is set in iOS Settings.
Must I make a call to save the setting? Is there a sync call or something?
Applications can’t make device (system) wide settings changes. That would violate the application “sandbox” philosophy.
The best you can do is have the app delegate detect when your application comes back into the foreground (after unlocking the phone) and then reset the screen brightness just for your app.