App Switcher

Give your older iPhone a bevy of modern handset features with Little12

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 5, 2021

When Apple launched the iPhone X back in 2018, we knew the company was transitioning into a new hardware era. It wasn’t long before Apple ditched Home Button-equipped handsets altogether, paving the way for a more advanced gesture-driven user experience that could be enjoyed on a larger edge-to-edge display.

For those who still have an older Home Button-equipped iPhone, the user experience isn’t quite as robust as it would be on a notched handset by comparison. For that reason, iOS developer Ryan Nair launched Little12, a free jailbreak tweak that back-ports several of the gestures and features from notched devices (and then some) to non-notched devices.

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MilkyWay 3 supercharges multitasking productivity on jailbroken handsets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated March 28, 2022

Multitasking is something that the iOS platform has always been somewhat behind the competition on. While the App Switcher provides fast access to recently-used apps, it’s nowhere near as intuitive as iPadOS’ side-by-side apps or macOS’ windowed applications. Many iPhone users have demanded similar functionality for their handsets for years, but Apple has yet to prescribe a solution.

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iPadSwitcher ports the iPad’s superior App Switcher UI to pwned iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 27, 2020

Love it or hate it, the App Switcher is something we use every day while interacting with our iPhones. Not only does it provide a rapid way of returning to recently used applications, but it also lets users force-quit those that aren’t currently needed. Unfortunately, the App Switcher user experience isn’t identical from one platform to another…

Anyone who owns an iPad in addition to an iPhone would be able to attest to just how superior the iPad’s App Switcher user experience feels. Fortunately for jailbreakers, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed iPadSwitcher by iOS developer dpkg_ can bring that same user experience to pwned iPhones.

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AppButton makes it easier to multitask on jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 14, 2020

Love it or hate it, the iPhone’s native App Switcher doesn’t seem like it will be receiving any substantial upgrades anytime soon. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the jailbreak community continuously tries to provide a better user experience for those with valid frustrations regarding the native user interface.

If you, like many others, are searching for a better App Switcher experience on your pwned handset, then you might want to take a moment and observe a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called AppButton by iOS developer MiRO.

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App Switcher Controller lets jailbreakers personalize their multitasking interface

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 21, 2020

Chronic multitaskers are apt to use the iPhone’s App Switcher for rapidly moving between recently-used apps more frequently, but wouldn’t it be great if Apple offered at least some form of user customization for what could be considered one of the iPhone’s most-used interfaces?

If you answered yes to the question above, then we invite you to check out a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed App Switcher Controller by iOS developer Tomasz Poliszuk, as it provides iPhone users with a bevy of options for personalizing the App Switcher interface.

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Access your favorite contacts from anywhere in iOS with QuickConnect

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 24, 2020

By now, most folks already know that iOS 14 will permit users to pin their favorite conversations at the top of the Messages app. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could pin your favorite contacts to various parts of iOS system wide as opposed to being confined to just one app?

That’s the thinking behind a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed QuickConnect by iOS developer Elias Sfeir, and as depicted in the screenshot examples above, the tweak lets users pin their favorite contacts to frequently used parts of the iOS platform, including the App Switcher and the Lock Screen.

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ImTrynaVibe keeps users from accidentally force-closing a Now Playing app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated March 10, 2021

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I’m playing music in the background and I begin force-closing apps from the App Switcher only to learn that I’ve accidentally killed the Now Playing app. This frustrating experience often results in the cumbersome process of re-launching the Now Playing app and finding the track I was playing just to try and scrub back to the point where I was before prematurely killing the music.

If you’ve ever been in the same boat and understand just how irritating this experience is, then you might turn to a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called ImTrynaVibe by iOS developer PopsicleTreehouse for help, as it effectively prevents users from accidentally force-quitting the Now Playing app via the App Switcher.

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Modernize your iPhone’s App Switcher experience with Spear

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 9, 2020

There’s no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that try to improve the iPhone’s native App Switcher, but one of the latest concepts to have caught my eye is a new release dubbed Spear by iOS developer Dylan West (iOSthemem0d).

Spear not only replaces the native App Switcher interface with a better looking one, but it adds useful new functionality that most iPhone users are likely to find particularly useful. As depicted in the screenshot examples above, Spear incorporates a swipe-up interface at the bottom of the App Switcher that contains shortcuts and toggles, among other things.

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Astrid brings a snazzy new multitasking experience to jailbroken handsets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 1, 2020

Multitasking is an important feature on modern smartphones and tablets, not only because we demand more and more out of our apps at any one given time, but also because we want to be able to do more than one thing at once to save time. Multitasking has come a long way on the iOS platform over the years, but one fact remains true: the jailbreak community continues to have of the best multitasking concepts that Apple still has yet to incorporate out of the box.

Astrid by iOS developer MTAC is the latest of such multitasking concepts to come to fruition in the form of a jailbreak tweak as of late. Astrid aims to be a no-BS interface for simply accessing your most recently-used apps in a jiffy. Best of all, it includes creature comfort features that the standard App Switcher doesn’t.

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Personalize your App Switcher experience with Custom SW

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 29, 2020

Most people use their iPhone’s App Switcher as a means of quickly returning to a recently-used application, but the current interface certainly leaves a lot to be desired, especially if you like what you see on the iPad.

If you find yourself in this situation a lot, then you might be interested in a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Custom SW by iOS developer mustafa89. As shown in the screenshot examples above, Custom SW provides users with a plethora of ways to augment the appearance and usability of the iPhone’s native App Switcher.

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QuitAll lets you force-close all App Switcher apps with one tap

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 1, 2020

As you use apps on your iPhone or iPad, your App Switcher begins to accumulate a running history of recently used apps in the order you’ve use them. These apps are suspended in a frozen state to make multitasking more efficient, but even suspended apps use some of your handset’s RAM to make relaunching them faster.

iOS automatically manages your device’s memory to ensure smooth operation, but if you’re a RAM nut then you may habitually force-close all your App Switcher’s suspended apps when you finish using your device. QuitAll is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Dave van Wijk that lets you do this in one fell swoop as opposed to swiping up on each of the App Switcher’s individual app preview cards.

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