Home Button-equipped devices are just hanging on by a thread as Apple moves to totally stop supporting them with iOS 17 and beyond, but for those who own them and recognize their worth in terms of hobby hacking, there’s a new MacDirtyCow exploit-centric add-on in town called Gestureify by HackZy that may captivate your attention.
As the name suggests, Gestureify simply brings gesture-based device navigation and usage to devices with Home Buttons, much like Home Bar-equipped devices have enjoyed since the iPhone X first debuted.
While features of this nature are typically only available on jailbroken devices, the MacDirtyCow exploit that Gestureify takes advantage of allows for writing to a device’s kernel memory, which makes this possible without a jailbreak.
While the Home Button is integral on those devices not only for getting to the Home Screen and accessing the App Switcher, but also for forcefully rebooting the device, the developer says that much like Home Bar-equipped devices, forceful restarting will be changed to holding down the volume down and sleep/wake buttons instead.
Gestureify also lends a helping hand if your Home Button is no longer functioning, so it’s useful whether you’re installing it just for fun or because you need to.
One thing worth noting, however, is that Gestureify is intended only for iOS 15 devices. Using t on any firmware newer than iOS 16.0.3 might result in functionality problems, according to the developer.
Those interested in taking advantage of gesture-based controls and leaving their Home Button behind can acquire it for free from the Misaka package manager app.
Anyone who isn’t already taking advantage of the Misaka package manager app can follow the steps outlined in our detailed walkthrough post.
Are you going to be taking advantage of Gestureify, or are you already using a Home Bar-equipped handset? Let us know in the comments section down below.