iOS’ Spotlight search function is severely underpowered, and with just a bit more oomph, it could be a significantly more powerful tool for both casual and power users alike.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will ever expand upon Spotlight’s seemingly limited search functionalities in upcoming iterations of iOS or not, but in any case, jailbreakers won’t need to wait around for that to happen. With a newly-released and free jailbreak tweak called LuxSit by iOS developer LacertosusDeus, you can enjoy an upgraded Spotlight search experience today.
From what we can gather, LuxSit enables Spotlight search to search for content directly inside of specific apps, such as various Reddit clients, Spotify Music, YouTube, and the Zebra package manager. Reddit users will be happy to know that LuxSit supports Apollo and Narwhal in addition to the official Reddit app, and it even plays nicely with the Reddit website in Safari.
According to the developer, LuxSit can provide the following useful features in a pinch:
- Launch specific subreddits by using the r/ prefix when searching Spotlight
- Search for songs in the Spotify app by using the s/ prefix when searching Spotlight
- Search for packages in Zebra by using the zbr/ prefix when searching Spotlight
- Search for videos in YouTube by using the yt/ prefix when searching Spotlight
Here are some examples:
After you install LuxSit, you’ll find a preference pane in the Settings app where you can configure any of the following options:
- Toggle the Reddit search prefix on or off on demand
- Select your preferred methods of browsing Reddit
- Toggle the Spotify search prefix on or off on demand
- Toggle the Zebra search prefix on or off on demand
- Toggle the YouTube search prefix on or off on demand
If you use Spotlight search more often than the average person and you always wish that Apple would make its searching functionality more powerful in a future software update, then perhaps you should consider giving LuxSit a try. The tweak is a free download from the Packix repository in Cydia and Sileo and works with all jailbroken iOS 11 and 12 devices.
It’s also worth noting that the developer has published LuxSit’s source code on GitHub for those interested in learning more about how the tweak works behind the scenes.
Do you think LuxSit is a worthy upgrade from the stock Spotlight search experience? Let us know by dropping a comment below.