App Switcher

CallPlus improves the Phone app on jailbroken iPhones

If you have an iPhone, then chances are you rely on the built-in Phone app to handle your inbound and outbound calls. While the app is useful, it’s also barebones by nature and could do with some improvements.

A new jailbreak tweak dubbed CallPlus by iOS developer Elias Sfeir supercharges the Phone app, giving you more features than you’re probably accustomed to out of the box.

SwitcherCC merges the App Switcher and Control Center interfaces

The App Switcher and Control Center interfaces are among some of the most important throughout iOS. Each is utilitarian by nature and serves a particular purpose, but as previous jailbreak tweaks like Auxo have demonstrated, they look and feel better when combined.

A new free jailbreak tweak called SwitcherCC by iOS developer Skittyblock brings both interfaces together, making it so you can access everything in one place.

The best jailbreak tweaks for the App Switcher

Some use the App Switcher more than others, but it can be a useful tool whether you multitask all the time or just occasionally need to troubleshoot a problematic app. A whole host of jailbreak tweaks have dropped since the iOS 10 jailbreak was initially launched, and with that in mind, choosing what to install to mod out your device can be tough.

In this roundup, we’ll showcase a hand-picked list of our favorite jailbreak tweaks for the App Switcher, all of which work with the Yalu jailbreak for iOS 10.

Apple confirms 3D Touch app switching was intentionally removed from iOS 11

The convenient 3D Touch power-user gesture for quickly opening iOS's app switcher has disappeared from iOS 11 beta. According to Apple Engineering's response to a Radar that developer Bryan Irace recently filed regarding its removal, the gesture was pulled intentionally from iOS 11 beta and might not be coming back in subsequent betas.

On iOS 10 and older, you can view your recently used apps by pressing the left side of the screen with 3D Touch. You can also use 3D Touch to quickly switch to a previous app by pressing the left edge of the screen hard, then swipe right.

Neither gesture works in iOS 11 beta.

When asked about the removal, Irace received the following reply from Apple Engineering:

Please know that this feature was intentionally removed.

The wording confirms it's not a bug—Apple did remove this power-user gesture on purpose.

Here's the screenshot of Apple's response to Irace's Radar.

I have a problem with the wording of the statement.

For starers, it doesn't make it 100 percent clear whether or not they intentionally removed the gesture from iOS 11 beta only for it to return in subsequent betas. We were, of course, hoping it was merely a bug. But the fact that it isn't listed as a known issue in the release notes accompanying the iOS 11 installer is rather telling.

This could be related to iPhone 8.

With major design changes coming to the next iPhone in the form of a nearly full-screen face with a seamless OLED display, the feature's removal might quite possibly indicate a brand new way of accessing iOS's app switcher on iPhone 8.

I wish Apple made it an optional setting rather than remove it completely. That way, people who still wanted it could keep it. On the other hand, Apple has stats on iOS features people use and perhaps numbers for the app switching 3D Touch thing were dismal, who knows?

The fact is, it doesn't make much sense if you use your Plus iPhone model right-handed. Besides, I know many people who accidentally activate it all the time and get annoyed.

Could it have been deprecated by iPhone 8, because it was too easy to trigger accidentally without a bezel around the display? Will iPhone 8's rumored function area at the bottom doubles as an app switcher of sorts? Last but not least, has Apple decided to remove the gesture because very few people were using it or were unaware it existed in the first place?

Tell us what you think in the comments section!

SwitcherControls merges the App Switcher and Control Center interfaces into one

If you want a more powerful App Switcher, then perhaps a good place to start is with a new jailbreak tweak called SwitcherControls by iOS developer DGh0st.

Immediately reminiscent of the multi-center feature from a prior jailbreak tweak release known as Auxo 3, SwitcherControls combines both the App Switcher and Control Center interfaces into one, yielding what you see above.

This tweak makes the App Switcher’s Home screen card more consistent

The App Switcher has a Home screen card in addition to those for each of your recently used apps. While each app has its own header with an icon and label above it, the Home screen card unfortunately does not.

A new free jailbreak tweak called HomeCardIconLabel by iOS developer DGh0st does away with this inconsistency and adds both a label and icon to the top of the Home screen card in the App Switcher.

Do more from your App Switcher with EnhancedSwitcherClose

The stock App Switcher looks alright, but it's not as useful as it could be. Apple limits what you can do inside the App Switcher to force-quitting apps, but as jailbreak developers have shown for years, there’s so much untapped potential.

A new free jailbreak tweak called EnhancedSwitcherClose by iOS developer DGh0st provides you with a new way to interact with your App Switcher cards and gives you more options depending on the way you swipe them.

StoreSwitcher lets you easily switch between App Store accounts

If you have more than one Apple ID associated with your iPhone for downloading apps from the App Store, then having a way to switch between your accounts more easily might be at the top of your wish list.

A new jailbreak tweak called StoreSwitcher by iOS developer Ori Kadosh is a new release that was designed with these kinds of people in mind.

3DSwitcher 2 brings three-dimensional animations to your App Switcher

Without a doubt, the App Switcher is one of the interfaces that gets used more than any other on an iOS device. It’s an access point for all of your recently-used apps, and whenever you desire to force-quit an application, you’ll end up in the App Switcher for that too.

Since you use it so much, why not empower yourself with the ability to customize it and make it look the way you want it to? You could always leave it stock, but when you have a jailbreak, you can stand out from the rest with a jailbreak tweak called 3DSwitcher 2.