If you’ve been following our blog closely over the last few weeks, you’ll notice that we have covered quite a number of different themes that have been released or updated for the iOS 7 jailbreak. While themes are definitely the main option that most iOS users use to customize their devices, other methods exist to change the look and feel of an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
All that leads into Icon Masks, a new jailbreak tweak that redefines the look of your Home screen icons…Â
As you might expect from its name, Icon Masks installs dozens of icon masks that can be enabled through Winterboard. Each icon mask changes the look of your Home screen icons, with several shapes to choose from: blob, circle, cloud, droplet, eye, guitar pick, heart, hexagon, leafy, oval, ribbon, rocket, sea star, shield, square (rotated), square (rounded), square (squished), square (tipped), triangle (sharp), triangle (rounded), triangle (squished), vintage and more.
Essentially, this tweak adds some additional flare to your stock or themed icons. For instance, you might choose to install one of the top 10 themes for Winterboard and then use Icon Masks to overlay a hexagonal mask. If you enjoy the art of perfecting the look of your device, there is probably a combination that you’ll find looks great. In the screenshots above, for demonstrative purposes, I used a vintage mask for the left and a cloud mask for the right.
One downside to this tweak is that it doesn’t apply an icon mask to folders, which is a big eyesore. There are also issues with the Calendar app text displaying properly. The underlying problem is that theming iOS 7 is more challenging than past versions, so we’ll have to be patient as designers look into new methods of skinning different elements of the user interface. In the meantime, expect to face minor inconsistencies with themes and other customization packages.
Icon Masks, developed by ideaprison, is available for free on Cydia in the default ModMyi repository. An upcoming update promises to fix the Calendar text for each shape, and later versions will provide preference icon shapes and folder shapes. The tweak has a number of options to configure in Settings. If you’re looking for a similar tweak for badges, Badge Masks is also available on Cydia in the same repo.
Let’s see what Icon Masks looks like on your device. Be sure to share your screenshots in the comments for everyone to see.