Your iPhone includes a native feature known as Reachability that makes it easier to operate your device with just one hand. It works by sliding the handset’s interface down to thumb level, making it so that you can tap objects that would typically reside at the very top of your screen.
As useful as Reachability can be, Apple assumes one size fits all and that their out-of-the-box experience will be right for everyone. Fortunately, jailbreakers can now take advantage of a newly released jailbreak tweak called Ability by iOS developer Ethan Whited to tailor the native Reachability interface to your needs.
Upon installing Ability, users will find a dedicated preference pane in the Settings app where they can get started with their customizations:
Here, you can:
- Toggle Ability on or off on demand
- Enable or disable the Reachability interface timeout
- Enable or disable swipe to dismiss
- Enable or disable tap to dismiss
- Configure a custom Chevron opacity level
- Configure a custom Reachability interface offset
- Configure a custom Reachability corner radius
- Reset all settings to their defaults
The developer incorporates a Respring button at the top right of the preference pane to help you save your settings on demand.
While some of these options are generic, we particularly enjoy having the ability to disable the Reachability interface timeout. It’s also useful being able to toggle the swipe and tap to dismiss gestures on or off, since it can be easy to accidentally dismiss Reachability when you didn’t mean to.
Those interested in trying Ability for themselves can download the tweak for free from the Twickd repository via their preferred package manager. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 13 devices and is open source on the developer’s GitHub page.
Do you use Reachability enough to justify customizing it with Ability? Share your thoughts and concerns in the comments section below.