Chariz and Packix are two of the most popular third-party repositories for Cydia today, and as you might come to expect, the founders of each have become good friends along the way. But an announcement shared just this week via the Chariz Twitter account conveyed that the two repositories will soon consolidate into one, promising substantial improvements to the user experience for jailbreakers in the process.
Citing the announcement, the aforementioned merger was a project seven months in the making and represents an entirely new direction for both repositories as they unite into one and improve consumer services for the greater good.
After both repositories come together, the resulting repository will receive significant renovations that are purportedly based on Andrew Wiik’s Packix v2 interface. But perhaps more importantly, the teams expect to complete their merger and makeover by the time a full-fledged iOS 12 jailbreak with Cydia and/or Sileo support is completed.
As for why this is happening, the announcement delves into that. Here’s an excerpt:
Chariz and Packix are both very popular Cydia repositories for the jailbreak community, especially when it comes to giving tweak and theme developers a place to sell and distribute their products. Chariz has always been more up-to-date with the legal and financial side of selling software while Packix has been pushing forward with innovations for the modern Cydia repository. We found that these two different talents would be better suited for our users if they were put together, so we decided to merge.
As it would seem, the decision to merge was one to syndicate talents from both sides in an effort to create a better and more efficient platform. The final product promises substantial speed improvements over the original Packix repository and elevated stability concerning server uptime.
The merger will also introduce game-changing new features – one of the most important being that users can now purchase products via Apple Pay and Google Pay in addition to PayPal. For those who don’t use any of those, the option to pay via credit card will also be available. Users can also link and unlink devices more easily.
Users can also expect improved customer support as the merger promises to link jailbreakers and tweak developers together for an unprecedented level of two-way communication. This makes it easier than ever before to request bug fixes and new features, or to simply ask for a refund if the tweak doesn’t do what you expected it to.
Here are some screenshot examples of the updated payment and two-way communication interfaces:
Furthermore, developers will receive powerful new analytics and tools that will let them track their sales, refine the package uploading process, automatically resolve common file permission mistakes, and process their .deb files so they will be compatible with as many jailbreak platforms as possible. Once uploaded, a tweak depiction will look something like this:
In a post-ModMyi and ZodTTD/MacCiti era, third-party repositories have all but taken over; BigBoss is now the only default Cydia repository that still stands, and third-party repositories like Chariz and Packix are on the rise. On the other hand, seeing such promising advances like this are reassuring of the fact that there are still lots of dedicated developers behind the scenes.
What are your thoughts about the Chariz/Packix merger? Are you excited about all the new features? Discuss in the comments section below.