Ever since Apple first introduced an OLED display in its smartphone lineup, there’ve been countless jailbreak tweak releases attempting to take full advantage of it. From always-on displays, to revolutionary new notification indicators, there has been no shortage of innovation on this front.
The latest addition to the party is a newly released jailbreak tweak called Dots 2 by iOS developer Shyam Lad, and as depicted in the screenshot examples above, this tweak displays pulsating colorful dots for missed notifications at the top of an always-on pitch black display when the device is locked.
As you might’ve guessed, the dots are color-matched to the app they represent, and they’ll persist on your iPhone’s locked, black display until you acknowledge any missed notifications you have.
As we should all know already, OLED displays can turn black pixels completely off, which results in incredible power savings. For that reason, the tweak shouldn’t impact your battery life much, although it’s a great way to show off your handset’s OLED display in a useful fashion. It’s worth noting, however, that the always-on-display functionality is optional.
Upon installing Dots 2, users will find a dedicated preference pane in the Settings app where they can configure the tweak to their liking:
Here, you can:
- Toggle Dots 2 on or off on demand
- Use default icons for color choices instead of colors from themed icons
- Enable or disable always-on-display mode
- Enable or disable tap to wake
- Configure the dot size with a slider
- And more…
An integrated Respring button is available in the primary preference pane and can be used to save any changes you make.
While the tweak could theoretically work on iPhones without OLED displays, we wouldn’t generally recommend it since OLED displays are more battery-friendly with regard to black pixels. Doing this with an LCD display would result in substantial battery drain unless you utilized tap to wake.
Those interested in trying Dots 2 can purchase the tweak for $2.00 from the Packix repository via their preferred package manager. The tweak is a free upgrade if you own the original Dots, and it has been verified as compatible with jailbroken iOS 13 devices.
Will you be augmenting your newly jailbroken handset with Dots 2? Share in the comments section below.