Once upon a time, a developer wanted more from their iPhone’s Messages app. That resulted in the creation of a jailbreak tweak called MessagesXI several years back.
This week, iOS developer mrliquorman is bringing MessagesXI to the Havoc repository so that it can reach more people, and that’s a good thing considering all the different things that it can do.
In a nutshell, MessagesXI enhances the Messages app with more features. It seamlessly integrates into Apple’s native Messages app and iMessage service for an Apple-like user experience.
Among the different features the tweak brings to the table are:
- If backgrounding or closing the Messages app, re-opening the app brings you to the conversation list instead of to the conversation you were in last
- Manually read and un-read messages and display a custom indicator to let you know that the message was manually read or un-read
- Prevent your recipient from seeing your typing indicator to know you’re responding to them
- Change the color of unread message indicators
- And more…
According to the developer, users can access MessagesXI from the ellipsis button next to the message composition button in the conversation list, as indicated by the screenshot example above.
Users can also swipe left on conversations in the conversation list to mark them as red or unread, and they can also use 3D Touch/Force Touch gestures if they prefer.
Unfortunately, marking a conversation as read or unread does not remove the read receipt for the other party. This feature is merely intended for the jailbreak tweak user and their unique purposes.
Once installed; users will find a dedicated preference pane in the Settings app where the tweak and configured to your liking:
The different options that you can change here include:
- Toggling MessagesXI on or off on demand
- Toggling manually read conversations on or off
- Toggling snap back to conversation list on or off
- Toggle hide typing indicator on or off
- Toggle automatically read group chats on or off
- Toggle read conversation on sending a message on or off
- Configure a manual unread message dot color
- Configure a normal unread message dot color
- Reset the manual unread message dot color
- Reset the normal unread message dot color
- Reset all unread chats
- Reset all settings
- Apply any changes you’ve made to the preference pane
If you’re interested in giving MessagesXI a try, then you can purchase the tweak for $1.49 from the Havoc repository via your favorite package manager app. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 14, 15, and 16 devices.
Are you planning to give the MessagesXI tweak a try? Let us know why or why not in the comments section down below.