Activator

Avya improves notification banner privacy when sharing your iPhone’s screen with friends

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 6, 2021

When your iPhone is locked, iOS will try to mask the contents of your Lock Screen’s incoming notification banners until you authenticate yourself so that onlookers who shouldn’t be snooping on your notifications won’t be able to in the first place.

This is a brilliant privacy feature on Apple’s part, and such a feature may also have uses when your iPhone is unlocked, such as when showing a friend or co-worker your iPhone’s screen to look at a photo or video and an unexpected notification banner pops up.

Activator doesn’t yet support iOS 14, but this tweak offers temporary refuge

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 3, 2021

Now that the unc0ver jailbreak supports up to and including iOS & iPadOS 14.3, we’re seeing a huge influx of new jailbreakers who are wanting to take better advantage of their owned handset(s).

Unfortunately, Ryan Petrich’s venerable Activator tweak, which allows users to map various actions to custom gestures, isn’t yet compatible with iOS or iPadOS 14, and many jailbreakers are looking for alternatives for the time being.

RingerActions lets jailbreakers customize what happens upon toggling the ringer/silent switch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 15, 2021

The iPhone’s ringer/silent switch is traditionally used for the purposes implied by its rather conspicuous name — it either enables the ringer for incoming notifications or it silences notification sounds on demand.

With the introduction of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called RingerActions by iOS developer Chr1s, users now have the ability to map alternative actions to the ringer/silent switch’s conditional state.

SmartVolumeMixer2 offers seamless control over all your iPhone’s different volume levels

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 18, 2021

Depending on your surroundings, you might fine-tune your handset’s volume level so that you can hear music, videos, or even voice messages and phone calls. In most cases, we do this by pressing the volume up or down buttons on the side of the device, or perhaps by opening Control Center and dragging the slider to a comfortable listening level.

What many people don’t know, however, is that iOS & iPadOS play host to several different volume level settings. One of those controls your media playback volume, while another controls your phone call volume. You also have individual volume levels for connected Bluetooth devices, notification sounds, and even Siri’s voice.

QuickSearch lets jailbreakers search the web from anywhere on their iPhone

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 28, 2021

Not a moment goes by that my inquisitive mind doesn't fancy researching something in depth, and for that reason, I think that the internet can be an incredibly valuable resource. Other people in the same boat would probably agree, however picking up their phone to do some research can be a cumbersome, multi-step endeavor.

QuickSearch is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak created by iOS developer iCraze for the sole purpose of making it easier to search the web from literally anywhere on your pwned iPhone or iPad. It achieves the aforementioned goal by allowing the end user to summon a search bar with the help of an Activator action.

Yobun Pro provides jailbreakers with quick access to advanced shortcuts

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 1, 2021

One of the many things iOS users may notice is that Apple spends lots of time refining the platform’s user experience with each and every substantial iteration, paying special attention to user-friendliness regardless of what a user’s age or technical know-how might be. One of the unfortunate burn backs of having such a foolproof platform is that users aren’t typically provided with much by way of advanced settings.

While the issue above can be somewhat of a bummer to those more knowledgeable in the arts of technology, the good news is that jailbreakers aren’t bound by the confines of Apple’s interface simplicity. Jailbreak tweaks, such as the newly released Yobun Pro by iOS developer Plat Ykor, offers convenient shortcuts for advanced controls that iPhone users can’t normally access on a stock handset.

Summon a floating web browser from anywhere in iOS with Megane

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 2, 2020

Any time you feel like browsing the web, it’s essentially as easy as launching the Safari app and beginning a web search or asking Siri to search the web for you. But if even these two methods are too much effort for you, or you’d rather stay in the app interface you’re already in instead of closing that app to visit Safari, then we might have just the right solution for you.

Enter Megane, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer sugiuta that allows users to summon a floating web search interface like the one shown in the screenshot example above from just about anywhere in iOS with a gesture of their choosing.

Zefy makes Spotify behave more like a default media player on jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 21, 2020

Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services available for the iOS & iPadOS platforms apart from Apple's own Apple Music streaming service. But if anything’s painfully obvious, it’s the fact that Apple nerfs the functionality of third-party apps and services that compete with its own by limiting what they can do on their platform; this effectively makes Apple’s own services look better by comparison, and intentionally so.

If you’re an avid Spotify user and you also have a jailbroken iPhone or iPad at your disposal, then you could probably benefit from the likes of a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Zefy by iOS developer udevs. This tweak implements a few handy workarounds for iOS to make Spotify feel more like a native music player than just a third-party alternative to Apple’s.

Coeus augments the Control Center interface with app and Activator shortcuts

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 2, 2021

Apple created iOS’ Control Center interface to be an all-in-one hub for shortcuts and toggles, but for whatever reason, the company limits the shortcut selection to a small number of native apps without so much as the seemingly necessary option to configure custom app shortcuts of the end user’s choice.

If, like me, you despise Apple’s systematic disregard for user configuration, then there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll enjoy the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Coeus by iOS developer Azzou.

Comet brings iOS 14-inspired widgets to jailbroken iOS 13 devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 18, 2020

If you sat back and watched the WWDC 2020 presentation, then you would’ve witnessed Apple’s plans for the upcoming iOS & iPadOS 14 software update slated to launch this Fall. One of the features that stood out most to me was the introduction of authentic Home Screen widgets, which the jailbreak community has enjoyed for years along with several other of iOS 14’s ‘new’ features.

Jailbreakers are typically hard-pressed to partake in major software updates like iOS 14 because of the implications that doing so would have on their jailbreak eligibility. Fortunately, a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Comet by iOS developer Dylan West (@iOSthemem0d) brings a multitude of new widgets to jailbroken iOS 13 devices, and it certainly evokes an iOS 14-esque vibe if you know what we mean…

ScreenFreeze thwarts snooping when handing your iPhone to someone to share a photo

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 19, 2020

It’s not uncommon at all for someone to hand their iPhone to another person. Albeit a temporary action, this happens when someone wants another person to view a photo or video, try an app or game, or assist them with a troubleshooting matter. As common as this act is, a legitimate concern is what the person will do with your iPhone after you hand it to them.

If you’re among the group of people who get paranoid about someone rifling through your personal data upon handing them your iPhone, and you're certainly not alone, then you’ll probably come to appreciate the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed ScreenFreeze by iOS developer Greg0109.

Ryan Petrich launches new Activator beta with preliminary iOS 13 support

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 12, 2020

Activator, perhaps one of the most-used extensions ever created for the jailbreak community, received a beta update this weekend to add the first official support for iOS/iPadOS 13 since the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreak tools made pwning these versions possible. At the time of this writing, the latest Activator beta is now version 1.9.13~beta6.

Project lead developer Ryan Petrich announced the new beta version with preliminary iOS 13 support via Twitter late last night, along with Activator’s sister extension, Flipswitch: