Music

Spori makes it easier to use Siri to dictate music playback in Spotify

If you’re jailbroken on iOS 13 and use Spotify as your primary music streaming app, then chances are you might find yourself wishing that Siri worked as smoothly with Spotify as it did with Apple Music. Fortunately, a free jailbreak tweak called Spori by iOS developer udevs can make that happen.

Siri can already play tracks via the Spotify Music app if you specifically articulate that you’d like to play that song in Spotify, but who wants to waste their time adding those extra words to each and every Siri command? I, for one, certainly don't.

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

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.

MediaBar14 adds music controls to the iPhone’s Home Bar

One of the things Apple does really well is provide a quality music streaming service that can be accessed from all of your favorite devices, whether they’re mobile handsets or desktop computers. On the other hand, Apple could always do better by improving the experience of the user interface, especially in terms of music control accessibility on the iOS & iPadOS platforms.

Jailbreakers know all too well about the many shortcomings of Apple’s stock user interface, and that’s one reason why there are so many jailbreak tweaks available to the aftermarket. MediaBar14, for example, is a newly released jailbreak tweak by iOS developer MegaDev that lends a hand to Apple’s user interface in this particular department.

Lobelias upgrades iOS’ Now Playing interface with slick aesthetics

It’s no secret that the music listening experience on the iOS platform has remained somewhat stagnant over the past few years, but if you’re avidly searching for something to make things a bit more exciting and you have a jailbroken handset at your disposal, then a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Lobelias by iOS developer Litten offers a great place to start.

As depicted in the screenshot examples above, Lobelias gives iOS’ Now Playing interface a much-needed facelift and integrates a plethora of user-configurable aesthetics so that you can achieve the look and feel you want. Right off the bat, notable changes include the rounded album artwork, redesigned media controls, changes to the background, and new text label positions, among other things.

FullPlay gives jailbreakers an iOS 14-style full-screen Music app experience

Apple Music is one of the best ways to enjoy music streaming on an iPhone or iPad, but if you’re using iOS 13, then you might be scratching your head as to why Apple made some of the design choices they did; namely with regard to the card-style Now Playing interface. This topic becomes even more relevant when you stop to consider the fact that iOS 14 will make the app look more how it should have looked from the very beginning.

If you have a jailbroken iOS 13 device at your disposal and you have no plans to upgrade to iOS 14 when it launches this Fall, then you might be excited to learn that a new and free jailbreak tweak dubbed FullPlay by iOS developer Ethan Whited can bring the iOS 14 Music app’s more pleasant aesthetics to pwned iOS 13 devices.

Melody brings Now Playing album art to more parts of iOS

Those who use their iPhones to listen to their favorite music day in and day out are more likely to recognize the finer details of the music consumption experience than those who just listen to a song here and there. With that in mind, iOS developer Dylan West (iOSthemem0d) has released a new jailbreak tweak called Melody that tries to make the user experience even more enjoyable for hardcore music consumers.

Melody works by bringing the Now Playing track’s album artwork to more places in iOS. As depicted in the screenshot examples above, “more places” refers to quite a few different areas, including but not limited to:

Love lets you like or un-like a song without unlocking your iPhone

If you spend a lot of your time listening to music on your iPhone or iPad, then there’s a pretty good chance that you might take advantage of your Music app’s Like button to save a song you enjoy to your collection for later. Many apps support a Like button of some sort, but when your handset isn’t unlocked, getting to it can be somewhat of a chore.

That’s a problem that a newly released jailbreak tweak called Love by iOS developer MeBlackHat tries to fix, and it does that by allowing you to Like or un-Like music from almost anywhere in iOS with Activator or with a Control Center toggle – whichever you prefer.

Lyrication v2 adds slick music lyric support iOS’ Now Playing interfaces

Music enriches our lives at a spiritual level, and that’s one of the reasons why it can be so enjoyable to turn on the radio when you’re at work or undertaking a menial task. But if you’ve ever listened to a song and couldn’t distinguish its lyrics before, then you’d understand easy access to song lyrics is such an imperative ingredient for the ideal mobile music player, much like your iPhone.

Many music streaming applications already come with lyric functions out of the box, but this only applies to when you’re in that particular app. Apple could and should make the user experience more useful by allowing lyric viewing from the Now Playing widget anywhere in iOS, and that’s one reason why a free jailbreak tweak called Lyrication v2 by iOS developer Marcel Braun exists.