Listening to music is a popular activity among iPhone owners, but regardless of what music streaming app you use to jam out to your favorite tunes, one thing is certain: the Now Playing interface can be downright boring.
MusicBackground is a new jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Ethan Whited that hopes to solve this longstanding problem by incorporating eye-catching background effects, and it does this for the Now Playing interfaces in the Apple Music app, Spotify Music app, Tidal app, and even those found in Control Center and on the Lock Screen.
To those wondering what kinds of things the new MusicBackground tweak can do, a better question would be what it can’t. As you’re about to see, the tweak comes with scads of options for customizing how each of the Now Playing interfaces mentioned above look and feel:
Once installed, MusicBackground adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app where users can configure the tweak to their liking:
Options here include:
- Enabling or disabling MusicBackground on demand
- Configuring options for Apple Music Now Playing interface
- Configuring options for the Control Center Now Playing interface
- Configuring options for the Lock Screen Now Playing interface
- Configuring options for the Spotify Now Playing interface
- Configuring options for the Tidal Now Playing interface
Since the Now Playing view of each individual app and interface is different from the next, the developer provides a unique subset of options for each one tailored especially for it. We’ll dive deeper into those below:
Apple Music
In the Apple Music preference pane, users can customize the Now Playing interface in the Apple Music app with MusicBackground. Options here include:
- Enable or disable all Now Playing modifications in the Apple Music app
- Enable or disable a blurred background effect
- Choose between dark tint, light tint, or no tint for the background blur effect
- Configure the background blur intensity with a slider
- Enable or disable background blur animations
- Adjust the scale animation time in seconds
- Adjust the rotation animation time in seconds
- Restart the Apple Music app to save all changes you’ve made
Control Center
In the Control Center preference pane, users can customize the Now Playing interface in Control Center with MusicBackground. Options here include:
- Enable or disable all Now Playing modifications in Control Center
- Enable or disable a blurred background effect
- Choose between dark tint, light tint, or no tint for the background blur effect
- Configure the background blur intensity with a slider
Spotify
In the Spotify preference pane, users can customize the Now Playing interface in the Spotify app with MusicBackground. Options here include:
- Enable or disable all Now Playing modifications in the Spotify app
- Enable or disable a blurred background effect
- Choose between dark tint, light tint, or no tint for the background blur effect
- Configure the background blur intensity with a slider
- Enable or disable background blur animations
- Adjust the scale animation time in seconds
- Adjust the rotation animation time in seconds
- Restart the Spotify app to save all changes you’ve made
Tidal
In the Tidal preference pane, users can customize the Now Playing interface in the Tidal app with MusicBackground. Options here include:
- Enable or disable all Now Playing modifications in the Tidal app
- Enable or disable a blurred background effect
- Choose between dark tint, light tint, or no tint for the background blur effect
- Configure the background blur intensity with a slider
- Enable or disable background blur animations
- Adjust the scale animation time in seconds
- Adjust the rotation animation time in seconds
- Restart the Tidal app to save all changes you’ve made
Lock Screen
In the Lock Screen preference pane, users can customize the Now Playing interface on the Lock Screen with MusicBackground. Options here include:
- Enable or disable all Now Playing modifications on the Lock Screen
- Enable or disable a blurred background effect for the Now Playing widget
- Choose between dark tint, light tint, or no tint for the Now Playing widget’s background blur effect
- Configure the background blur intensity of the Now Playing widget with a slider
- Adjust the size of the Now Playing widget via a slider
- Enable or disable all modifications to the background of the Lock Screen’s Now Playing interface
- Enable or disable a blurred background effect for the Lock Screen’s Now Playing interface
- Choose between dark tint, light tint, or no tint for the Lock Screen’s Now Playing interface
- Configure the background blur intensity of the Lock Screen’s Now Playing interface with a slider
- Enable a custom corner radius and adjust the corner radius amount via a slider
- Enable or disable the minimal Lock Screen Now Playing widget
- Choose between a small or big Now Playing widget footprint
Perhaps the most notable thing that MusicBackground does for each of the aforementioned interfaces is in the name itself – allow end users to customize the backgrounds of those interfaces. With the Lock Screen, however, the developer provides options for customizing the widget itself, whether you like what the Lock Screen comes with out of the box, or you prefer something a little more minimal.
Those interested in trying the new MusicBackground tweak can purchase it from the Packix repository for $0.69 via their favorite package manager. The tweak is only supported on jailbroken iOS 14 devices.
Do you plan to customize your pwned handset’s Now Playing experience with the new MusicBackground tweak? Be sure to tell us why or why not in the comments section down below.