One of the things that Apple really fell short on when it comes to the iPhone is the App Switcher. I’m not the only one who thinks that the iPhone could benefit from an iPad-style grid-centric App Switcher, which utilizes a grid rather than a card carousel to display recently used apps and to make them easier to return to.
The Status Bar is one of the most important informative components of the iOS user interface, containing not only the current time, but also your cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity status, among other things. With that in mind, it’s a head scratcher as to why Apple excluded it from the App Switcher.
To improve the CarPlay user experience, iOS developer pookjw just this week released a new and free jailbreak tweak called Cauxo that brings a full-fledged App Switcher to the CarPlay user interface.
One area of the native experience on iPhones and iPads that I feel could do with some improvement is that of multitasking, and it seems I’m not alone because there have been countless jailbreak tweak releases intended to improve the efficiency of quickly moving between apps on jailbroken devices.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that we showed you a work-in-progress jailbreak tweak called Witcher by iOS developer MatoiDev that aimed to replace the native App Switcher’s dull user experience with a more effective and exciting-to-use multitasking interface that utilizes a customizable carousel-like interface.
One thing that jailbreakers seem to go nuts over are redesigned App Switcher concepts for the iPhone. While these types of jailbreak tweaks were once commonplace, they aren’t as frequently made for current jailbreaks.
The App Switcher gives you a place to manage all the different apps you’ve opened recently on your iPhone or iPad. You can move between recently-used apps or remove them from system memory by force-quitting them; that’s about it.
The App Switcher on an ordinary iPhone or iPad contains all the user’s recently-used apps. They’re in a state of suspension until re-opened, allowing the system to more efficiently load and prepare the app for the end user. But have you ever picked up your phone a day later and still saw a mess of apps in your App Switcher that you wish wasn’t there?
If you like how fluid and capable that multitasking feels on the iPad, then you probably wish your iPhone’s multitasking capabilities were up to par. Sadly, they aren’t; but with a new and free jailbreak tweak called medousa by uz.ra, you can get the multitasking experience that you’ve been hoping for on your iPhone.
If you’re one of those people that likes to clear out your App Switcher when you’re finished using your iPhone despite several advisories suggesting that you shouldn’t, then you might be excited to learn that iOS developer ichitaso has updated their popular KillBackground13 jailbreak tweak support the latest rootless jailbreaks on iOS & iPadOS 15 and 16.
For folks who like having more color at their fingertips when interacting with their iPhone’s user interface, the popular SwitchShades jailbreak tweak by iOS developer AnthoPak has been updated this week to support rootless iOS 15 and 16 jailbreaks such as Dopamine and palera1n.
For the most part, you shouldn’t be force-closing apps from your App Switcher unless you’re having a problem with them because suspending apps there is your iPhone’s way of optimizing performance upon the next time you go to use those apps.