Ever since Apple first started integrating OLED display on its iPhones, starting with the iPhone X in 2017, we’ve witnessed a steady increase in the number of jailbreak tweaks attempting to bring a true always-on display experience to the platform. One of the latest attempts comes by way of respected veteran tweak developer Elias Limneos and has been aptly named Glow.
Like other always-on display tweaks before it, Glow takes full advantage of the OLED display in Apple’s high-end handsets to express true darks for the background. It simultaneously displays pertinent details such as the date, time, and battery level, along an indicator to let you know whether you’ve got any missed notifications. Best of all, it does all of this while consuming as little power as possible.
In the screenshot example above, you’ll have a first-hand look at the most basic example of Glow at work. The interface displays everything we mentioned above, including a charging speed and temperature indicator. Below, you’ll find additional screenshots showing various animations an effects relevant to missed notifications and charging the battery, whether via Lightning cable or via a Qi-enabled wireless charging pad:
Once installed, Glow adds a preference pane to the Settings app where users can get their hands dirty with configuration:
Here, you can:
- Toggle Glow on or off on demand
- Customize the frequency of the glow effect
- 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, or 60 seconds
- Enable multiple glow colors, which fetches colors from app icon(s) you have missed notifications from
- Enable and configure several different widgets:
- Time
- Date
- Battery
- Charging Info
- Notification Icons
- Configure a dismissal timeout
- Enable dismissal when a notification appears
- Enable locking your device again to dismiss manually
- Choose from and enable various Glow presets
- Save a new preset
- Reset all settings to their defaults
Users will also be able to configure various parameters of the individual always-on display widgets themselves. We’ll show you what you can do with each of those below:
Time
The time widget comes with the following customization options:
- Hide or show the time widget on the always-on display
- Configure the preferred time format
- Choose a preferred color
- Adjust the time widget’s brightness level
- Choose a preferred font for the time display
- Restore widget to default settings
Date
The date widget comes with the following customization options:
- Hide or show the date widget on the always-on display
- Configure the preferred date format
- Choose a preferred color
- Adjust the date widget’s brightness level
- Choose a preferred font for the date display
- Restore widget to default settings
Battery
The battery widget comes with the following customization options:
- Hide or show the battery widget on the always-on display
- Enable charge dependent colors
- Adjust the glyph opacity
- Adjust the label opacity
- Adjust the battery size
- Restore widget to default settings
Charging Info
The charging info widget comes with the following customization options:
- Hide or show the battery widget on the always-on display
- Choose a preferred color
- Adjust the brightness level
- Show the current charging wattage
- Show the current charging amperage
- Show the current charging voltage
- Show the current battery temperature
- Adjust the charging info widget size
- Restore widget to default settings
Notification Icons
The notification icons widget comes with the following customization options:
- Choose the maximum number of notification icons allowed to display:
- 1 through 10 or none
- Show notification badges
- Use bold badges
- Animate badge changes
- Adjust the icon opacity level
- Adjust the icon size
- Restore widget to default settings
Glow has its obvious benefits over some of the other always-on display tweaks especially in terms of its support for animations and effects. It’s particularly awesome to see the edges of your handset glow when you get a new notification, and the same can be said about the distinctive charging animations that appear one way or another depending on the type of charging method you’re using.
Worthy of note, Elias Limneos is renowned for his quality tweaks, and this speaks to his experience with coding them. He’s also the developer behind CallBar XS, which is easily one of the most popular tweaks for iPhones today.
Those interested in trying Glow can download it from the BigBoss repository via their favorite package manager before activating. An activation purchase of $2.79 can be made from Glow’s preference pane once downloaded, and the tweak supports jailbroken iOS 12, 13, and 14 devices.
Do you plan to give Glow a try, or are you content with existing always-on display solutions such as Photon or Tritium? Let us know your position in the comments section below.