AppCrumb replaces iOS’ Breadcrumb links with something better

Sometimes when you tap on a link on your iOS device, your handset bumps you from one app to another. Under these circumstances, iOS puts an interactive shortcut in the Status Bar known as Breadcrumbs so that you can return to the previous app, but Apple could have done so much better in this department.

If you’re in agreeance, then you might want to peek at a newly-released jailbreak tweak called AppCrumb by iOS developer sharedRoutine. It improves Apple’s Breadcrumb links by replacing the standard Status Bar shortcut with a more full-fledged windowed app experience.

While Apple has been working hard to improve the multitasking experience on the iOS platform, the native Breadcrumb links are one area where those efforts fall short. Upon being bumped to a new app, you lose focus on your previous app, and this compels you to tap on the Status Bar link to return to where you were.

AppCrumb effectively solves this problem by keeping your previous app in your line of sight even as the new app is launched. As you’ll see in the screenshot examples above, the Notes app containing the Twitter link remains in view as a smaller window, even as the Twitter app opens silently in the background.

As you might come to expect, the windowed app is fully interactive. You can:

  • Swipe left or right to move the windowed app to either side of the display
  • Use gestures to resize the windowed app’s size on your screen
  • Tap the app once to launch it full-screen like Apple’s traditional Breadcrumbs link would
  • Double-tap the app to launch it in interactive windowed mode

Perhaps unsurprisingly, AppCrumb adds a preference pane to the Settings app where you can configure it to your needs:

Here, you can:

  • Enable or disable the tweak on demand
  • Choose the apps that AppCrumb will work with

If you happen to have an app that doesn’t play nicely with AppCrumb, then you can always disable it via the whitelist. This ensures that you won’t experience any unwanted conflicts.

From what we can tell, AppCrumb makes multitasking a lot more feasible on the iOS platform, especially when tapping on links that launch other apps on your handset. If you’re interested in trying AppCrumb for yourself, then you can purchase it for $0.99 from the Packix repository in Cydia or Sileo. The tweak supports all jailbroken iOS 11 and 12 devices.

Do you think AppCrumb is a suitable replacement for iOS’ standard Breadcrumb links? Discuss in the comments section below.