UI

Access your favorite contacts from anywhere in iOS with QuickConnect

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 25, 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.

MusicGround complements music playback on iOS with animated wallpapers

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 25, 2020

Lots of folks rely on their iOS devices as their primary music consumption devices, and so it’s sort of a head-scratcher as to why Apple doesn’t provide more of an interactive listening experience. In the jailbreak community, we’ve seen a plethora of workarounds for this, including the introduction of music visualizers for the Now Playing interface and more.

A newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed MusicGround by iOS developer Tr1fecta, on the other hand, takes a slightly different approach. Instead of giving users an animated Now Playing interface, this tweak provides users with an animated Metal Lyrics-inspired wallpaper that comes alive whenever music is playing.

MusicAlbumScroll Supercharges the Apple Music app with new gestures & more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 22, 2020

Apple Music users have a lot to brag about. Not only is it one of the best music streaming experiences on the iOS platform, but it also brings a native user interface with full Siri integration and a ton of other perks. But pleasantries aside, it does have a few shortcomings – namely in the user interface department.

MusicAlbumScroll is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Ethan Whited that improves upon the native Apple Music interface with some much-needed scrolling capabilities. With it, you can scroll horizontally between recently added albums, adjust spacing values, and even give your Apple Music app a rounded artwork aesthetic.

PinHeads WhatsApp ports iOS 14’s conversation pinning UI to WhatsApp

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 20, 2021

At the start of the month, we showed you a jailbreak tweak called PinHeads by iOS developer Ahmad that ported iOS 14’s conversation pinning capabilities in the Messages app to pwned iOS 13 devices. It was such a hit in the jailbreak community that we quickly saw competing tweak releases aiming to bring the same functionality to users’ handsets. Unfortunately, conversation pinning for third-party messaging apps seemed to be largely ignored… at least until now.

PinHeads WhatsApp is another new jailbreak tweak, also by iOS developer Ahmad, that brings iOS 14-esque conversation pinning capabilities to the third-party WhatsApp Messenger app. As shown in the screenshot examples above and below, the interface is heavily inspired by iOS 14’s native implementation, and as you might come to expect, the tweak’s behavior can be configured depending on the user’s own personal preferences.

This tweak puts a song counter at the top of each Spotify playlist

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 29, 2020

Spotify has long been one of my favorite media streaming apps – perhaps even more so than Apple’s native Apple Music platform. But one thing that has always managed to grind my gears is how the playlist interface doesn’t even so much as display the number of songs you’ve added to it.

Fortunately, a solution for this problem now exists in the form of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak subbed SpotifyPlaylistNumberOfSongs by iOS developer Aleksilassila.

This tweak lets you view the date in your Status Bar by tapping the time

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 18, 2020

Anyone in the market for adding a subtle touch of satisfying functionality to their iPhone’s Status Bar should be shifting their undivided attention toward the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed TapTapTipTapTime by iOS developer YulkyTulky.

While the name is a bit of a head-scratcher, don’t let that be the deterrent that prevents you from installing something you didn’t know you needed. TapTapTipTapTime basically lets you tap on the Status Bar’s time display to reveal the current date, and vice-versa.

Nita complements the Status Bar with an Emoji-driven weather display

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 16, 2022

Your iPhone’s Status Bar is supposed to be an all-in-one hub for pertinent information including battery level, signal strength, and other important indicators. That said, wouldn’t it be kind of nice if it included a brief tidbit about the weather too?

Those in agreement with the aforementioned sentiment will almost certainly want to take a moment out of their busy lives to check out a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed Nita by iOS developer Litten. As depicted in the screenshot example above, Nita depicts the current weather conditions outside with the help of a simple Emoji.

iAutoReply lets you configure automatic responses for text messages & iMessages

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 25, 2021

If can be tough, if not nearly impossible, to respond to every text message or iMessage throughout the day. This is especially true if you’ve got a lot of friends and a busy schedule. Fortunately, a newly released jailbreak tweak called iAutoReply by iOS developer MeBlackHat is here to help our friends know that their messages aren’t falling on deaf ears.

Just as the tweak’s name implies, iAutoReply offers many flexible features for users who might want to configure automatic replies for text messages or iMessages that they can’t reply to right away. Not only can iAutoReply be configured for global message responses, but it can also be configured to reply to certain contacts in a different way.

Colorful brings powerful interface colorization to pwned iOS 13 devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 15, 2020

For some jailbreakers, theming and system colorization are two of the most exciting aspects of having a pwned handset at their disposal. Fairly regularly, jailbreak tweak developers release some kind of add-on that allows users to colorize their handset’s aesthetics — some made specifically for certain interfaces, and others made to work system-wide.

A new jailbreak tweak release dubbed Colorful by iOS developer Dylan West (iOSthemem0d) is one of the latter, and it comes with so many options for tweaking your iPhone’s color scheme that you can captivate the interest of your peers regardless of what interface you might be looking at on your handset.

This tweak adds a screen recording length indicator to the Status Bar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 14, 2020

Whenever you initiate a screen recording on a notched iPhone, a red pill-shaped indicator appears over the Status Bar’s time display. This is useful for reminding you that your display is recording so you remember to stop it at some point, but iOS developer h4ckua11 had another idea for improving the screen recording indicator that would go on to become a new and free jailbreak tweak dubbed ScreenRecording Time.

As shown in the screenshot example above, ScreenRecording Time merely replaces the current time display in the red pill-shaped screen recording indicator with a timer denoting the length of time that the screen recording has been in effect. In other words, it reminds you of how long your screen recording is before you end it.

Aperio is a lightweight, yet functional app launcher for jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 5, 2021

If there’s anything to be said about app launcher concepts, it’s that they’re a cornerstone of the jailbreak community’s existence. There’ve been literally countless app switcher concepts released as jailbreak tweaks over the years, and even today, they continue to materialize. One of the latest of such tweaks is one called Aperio by iOS developers burrit0z and Thenatis.

As you might’ve discerned already from the screenshot examples, Aperio is a Lock Screen-based app launcher interface that comes with different display modes to appease both minimalists and power users alike. If you’re more of a minimalist, then you’ll probably opt for the compact interface option, whereas power users will likely go for the more crowded interface.

FastAppLS adds a wheel-shaped app launcher to the iPhone’s Lock Screen

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 13, 2020

The Lock Screen serves as a secure barrier between the user and the Home Screen, but there are sometimes instances where you might want faster access to certain apps without the delay of unlocking your device and browsing the Home Screen.

Enter FastAppLS, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak created by iOS developer Dcsyhi that puts a user- configurable app shortcut interface at the bottom of the Lock Screen so that users can more quickly access their favorite apps in a pinch.