It’s honestly rather embarrassing that Apple’s incoming call interface on the iPhone still looks the way it does in 2020, and that’s one of the reasons why I’ve always advocated for jailbreak tweaks that unlock minimized incoming call interfaces that are far less intrusive and more visually stunning than the native UI.
With the above sentiment in mind, it may not come off as much of a surprise that I’m having trouble containing my excitement about the likes of a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Scorpion by iOS developer Esquilli.
As depicted in the screenshot examples above, Scorpion shrinks the incoming call interface to about the size of a notification banner, ensuring less intrusion when interacting with your handset’s apps. What’s more is Scorpion isn’t limited to just the iPhone’s native Phone app. It also plays nicely with apps like FaceTime and third-party VoIP services like Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, and so forth.
At first glance, one of the primary things that comes to mind is that a well-established jailbreak tweak by Elias Limneos called CallBar XS already offers a similar solution. Albeit true, Scorpion brings with it a fresh and fully customizable aesthetic, and it’s even one full dollar cheaper than the former.
As you might come to expect, Scorpion adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app after installation where users can configure the tweak to their liking:
Here, you can:
- Toggle Scorpion on or off on demand
- Configure customization settings
- Configure call handling settings
- Configure Miscellaneous settings
- (Secret Menu is empty for now)
- Reset all preferences to their defaults
Digging deeper:
Customization
In the Customization pane, you can:
- Send a test call banner to yourself
- Choose between adaptive or custom dark mode settings
- Configure a custom banner style
- Choose between top or bottom of the display for banner display
- Enable or disable blur effects
- Choose the blur style you want to use
- Configure a background color
- Configure a text color
- Configure the background normal color
- Configure the background selected color
- Configure the button tint color
- Configure the animations style for the banner
Call Handling
In the Call Handling pane, you can:
- Choose your preferred dismiss behavior:
- None
- Suppress ringtone
- Decline the phone call
- Toggle automatic call answering
- Choose contacts to automatically answer calls from
- Choose apps to blacklist from using the Scorpion interface
Miscellaneous
In the Miscellaneous pane, you can:
- Choose a preferred gesture for banners
- Enable or disable Quick Actions
- Choose a preferred Quick Action gesture
- Toggle Haptic touch on or off
- Enable or disable vibrations for connected outgoing phone calls
- Hide or show the SIM localizer
As you can see, Scorpion is loaded with useful features to help you get the most out of your iPhone’s calling experience. Those looking for an upgrade over the old rusty iPhone calling interface will definitely want to pick this gem up.
Those interested in upgrading the iPhone’s dated incoming call interface can purchase Scorpion for $2.99 in the Dynastic Repo repository via their preferred package manager. It’s also worth mentioning that the tweak only supports jailbroken iOS 13 devices, with optimization for the iPad coming in a future release.
Will you be checking out Scorpion, or are you already satisfied with existing options? Discuss in the comments.