If there’s one thing most iPhone and iPad owners can relate to, it’s the dissatisfying inability to set default applications outside of Apple’s own. Sure, you can delete some of Apple’s native apps, but what good is that if iOS doesn’t link to third-party apps afterward?

Enter Evil Scheme, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Lorenzo that aims to be your convenient one-stop shop for configuring default apps of your choosing on your pwned iPhone or iPad.

While we’ve seen plenty of one-off jailbreak tweaks that have accomplished setting default apps in the past, Evil Scheme is different in that it allows you to set default apps for a variety of parameters, such as map navigating, web browsing, emailing, and even setting a default package manager for managing your jailbreak tweaks.

As we understand it, Evil Scheme works a lot like similar tweaks by utilizing URL schemes (hence the name) by configuring them to launch specific apps on your device. Where it stands apart, however, is in its finely tunable options, which permit users to carefully customize app selections and URL schemes that will launch those apps, and so forth.

Once installed, Evil Scheme adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app where you can configure it to your liking:

Here, you will be able to add or manage existing default apps, as well as play with experimental settings.

Upon tapping on the “Add new” button, you’ll be presented with the following selection interface:

Here, you can configure default apps, such as the following:

  • Mail clients
    • Spark
  • Maps
  • Package manager
    • Zebra
  • Reddit client
    • Apollo
  • Web browsers
    • Aloha
    • Brave
    • Cake
    • DuckDuckGo
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Google Chrome
    • Firefox
    • Firefox Focus
    • OnionBrowser
    • Opera

Upon making your selections, you can then fine-tune your default apps by configuring the types of URL schemes that will launch them and mapping the proper bundle IDs, among other things:

Once you’re satisfied, you can optionally venture into the experimental settings, where you can configure a preferred search engine for Spotlight Search and choose which apps will be exempt from launching your configured ‘default apps’ when a link is opened inside of it:

Please remember to use the “Save” button at the top-right of the tweak’s primary preference pane to save any changes you make on demand, otherwise, your links may not open in the app you’ve configured.

It’d be an understatement to say that Evil Scheme is one of the most thorough default app-setting tweaks we’ve ever seen, and that’s why we’d recommend giving it a try for yourself if you prefer to use third-party apps over first-party ones.

Evil Scheme is available as a free download from the Dynastic Repo repository in your favorite package manager, and it supports jailbroken iOS 13 devices. Furthermore, Evil Scheme’s source code is available on the developer’s GitHub page for those interested in learning more about how it works under the hood.

Do you plan to customize your pwned handset’s default apps with Evil Scheme? Tell us about your plans in the comments section below.