New beta tweak helps clean up Cydia package descriptions

Cyte

Well-known developer Majd Alfhaily just released a new beta tweak on his personal repo called Cyte. The tweak aims to clean up the descriptions for packages present in Cydia to make them look more consistent and appealing.

In my opinion, this is one of the biggest tweak opportunities present since Cydia opened up to Cydia Substrate extensions. A more consistent and cleaner looking Cydia when it comes to package depictions, would go a long way towards improving the experience.

Cyte is available right now on Alfhaily’s beta repo. If you’d like to take it for a test drive, simply add the following repo to your list of Cydia sources:

http://apt.alfhaily.me

Once you do, you’ll find the Cyte package available for download.

After testing Cyte, I can definitely say that the potential is there. For tweaks on the BigBoss repo, it cleans up the package description quite nicely. See the after and before images below for proof of that.

Cyte MTerminal

At this point, Cyte doesn’t do anything for tweaks that aren’t on the BigBoss repo. You’ll also notice a little “powered by Cyte” message at the bottom of the descriptions of packages it does enhance, which may not be appealing to all.

NoSlowAnimations Cyte

One controversial thing that Cyte does is remove repo ads. This will doubtlessly be a polarizing point. I don’t agree that removing all ads is the best solution, as that’s how high volume repos are able to do what they do. Perhaps, though, this was an inevitable reality with Saurik opening up Cydia.

I wish there was a solution somewhere in the middle, as how will repos stay alive without the necessary revenue generated from ads? Yes, ads are annoying, but it’s a fact that they pay the bills. I think we need to strongly think about this before we take make a knee-jerk reaction.

Powered By Cyte

Keep in mind, however, that this tweak is in beta, and is sure to grow and evolve. It’s super-promising, as I’ve always wanted a cleaner looking Cydia, and now that’s somewhat possible with Cyte.

What do you think about Cyte?