I’ve always admired the Apple Watch’s unique Home Screen experience when compared with the iPhone’s sameness that I’ve been using for well over a decade. That said, perhaps it’s not extra surprising that iOS developers bring this user experience to jailbroken iPhones.
The latest of such jailbreak tweaks to do this is a new release called Bridge by iOS developers MTAC and ETHN, and it offers not only a fluid user experience, but also the same great high quality that we’d expect from these two seasoned developers.
Bridge completely replaces your traditional iOS Home Screen with an Apple Watch-style alternative that features circular app icons and a similar arrangement with a centered app icon and surrounding icons that form a ‘honeycomb’-like arrangement.
MTAC and ETHN have both always been fans of previous jailbreak tweaks that did this, including Aeternum, WatchBoard, and Honey, but it was clear that the jailbreak community needed a modern replacement with compatibility for rootless jailbreaks, and so Bridge was born.
As you can see in the screenshot examples above, Bridge features not only an aesthetically pleasing Home Screen that resembles the Apple Watch, but also allows users to search for apps by name in alphabetical order and use tap-and-hold gestures on app icons for the hidden contextual menus.
Bridge even supports being enabled from iOS’ native Home Screen widgets, ensuring that there’s always an easy way for those switching from the ordinary iPhone grid-style Home Screen to the radically different Apple Watch honeycomb-style Home Screen:
Not a fan of the widget system? No problem. You can also use a dedicated Control Center toggle if you so wish to.
Once installed, Bridge adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app where users can configure the tweak to their heart’s content:
Things you can do here include:
- Switching between iOS & watchOS Home Screen
- Selecting which applications to hide or show in the Apple Watch-style Home Screen
- Configuring your app icon layout
- Move apps around here in order to control where apps appear on the Home Screen, starting in the center of the honeycomb and then moving in a clockwise direction
- Configuring your app icon appearance
- Enable or disable badges
- Use circular or regular app icons
- Change icon scale by using a pinch gesture
- Adjust the icon scale with a slider
- Enable or disable icon shadows
- Adjust the shadow radius via a pair of sliders
- Configuring your Home Screen
- Choose between Floating, Bridge, or Hidden Dock
- Hide the App Library
- Choose how many recently used apps will appear in the Floating Dock
- Use a squared Dock
- Hide the Dock’s background
- Hide or show Folders
- Reverse sort applications when sorted
- Enable OLED mode wallpaper
- Use a blurred wallpaper image
- Choose between Dark, Darker, Darkest, System, Light, Lighter, or Feather blur style
- Display a wallpaper blur while in stock icon mode
- And more…
With Bridge, your Home Screen has never been more fun or more interesting to use.
Those interested in having the Apple Watch-style Home Screen interface on their jailbroken iPhone are welcome to purchase the tweak for themselves for $2.49 from the Havoc repository via their favorite package manager app. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 14, 15, and 16 devices, including the latest rootless jailbreaks like Dopamine and palera1n.
Are you planning to make use of Bridge? Let us know in the comments section down below.