Contacy provides jailbreakers with a better notification interface for messaging apps

The notification system on the iOS & iPadOS platforms hasn’t changed much in recent years. The stale interface is certainly due for an upgrade, and with iOS & iPadOS 15’s announcement just around the corner, there’s still no telling whether it will receive any changes in the next update.

Fortunately for jailbreakers, sitting around and waiting for Apple to change stuff like this isn’t the only option. That’s because Contacy is a newly released jailbreak tweak by iOS developer XCXiao that brings a popular iOS & iPadOS notification concept originally seen on Reddit to fruition.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the aforementioned concept, it’s essentially one that tries to give enhanced visibility to notifications received from messaging apps as opposed to notifications from other apps. An example would be seen in the before and after comparison below:

Contacy effectively displays the person’s name and profile picture along with a brief summary of their message at the top of your notification banner list. The tweak can display your three newest message-based notifications at any one time — notifications older than those three would be put back into the notification banner list.

It’s worth noting that Contacy can hide contact information from the Lock Screen until the user authenticates themselves. Because of this, individuals will not be able to pick up your locked phone and view your private messaging data.

Contacy also supports Haptic Touch-based Quick Actions and flexible support for popular Lock Screen-adjusting jailbreak tweaks. The developer has also integrated an API of its own so that app developers can take advantage of it if they wish to. With that in mind, Contacy has the potential to fit into any workflow.

As you might come to expect, Contacy adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app where users can configure the tweak to their liking:

Options here include:

  • Toggle Contacy on or off on demand
  • Hide notification content when locked
  • Hide label when locked
  • Hide avatar when locked
  • Hide or show the app icon
  • Hide or show the circular bubble
  • Respring your device to save any changes you’ve made

Those who might be interested in trying a new incoming notification aesthetic on their jailbroken iPhone can purchase the new Contacy tweak for $0.99 from the Packix repository via their favorite package manager. The tweak supports pwned installations of iOS 14.

Do you think Contacy offers an upgraded experience over the stock incoming notification interface? Discuss why or why not in the comments section down below.