LockMessages Adds a Level of Privacy to Notification Center Messages

We’ve all had those situations when we’ve received a text message that we don’t necessarily want anyone else to see. The problem is that such a message always seems to come through when your iPhone on a desk, or on a table in plain sight.

So there you are, your message pops up along with the sender’s name and, if you have default settings turned on, a preview of the message’s contents.

A new jailbreak tweak allows you to minimize such embarrassing situations by giving you control over what iOS shows when you receive a new text or iMessage, and it’s called LockMessages…

Once installed via Cydia for $0.99, you’ll find a new Settings panel for LockMessages with your new options.

LockMessages offers two levels of security, the first of which is a user-definable, pre-written message which pops up when a new text or iMessage is received. You can enter a custom sender name, and even enter text that will appear as the preview, for good measure.

While this protects what is seen on the lock screen and inside Notification Center, LockMessages also offers a second level of security for all your messages in the form of a PIN lock.

Once enabled, entering the Messages app will prompt the user for a four-digit PIN code – no code, no entry.

We’d like to see a more granular option to control which specific messages are hidden on the lock screen, but even if you just use LockMessages as a way of PIN-protecting your messages, it’s probably a good purchase for your jailbroken iPhone.

Let us know if you use LockMessages, or if there’s an alternative you prefer, and why.