Now Playing

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.

Pigment offers quick and convenient colorization options banners & widgets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 1, 2020

If you’re in the market for a jailbreak tweak that can change the aesthetics of your iPhone or iPad in a pleasant way without drastically altering the way iOS or iPadOS was designed to look, then we think you’re going to appreciate a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed Pigment by iOS developer Simalary (Chris).

In brief, Pigment lets users colorize notification banners, widgets, and the Lock Screen’s Now Playing interface with easy-to-configure settings that have a minimalistic impact on the device’s overall appearance. In the screenshot examples above, you’ll notice that many of the notification banners are tinted to match the app icon they represent.

Finical lets iPhone users dismiss a lingering or unwanted Now Playing widget

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 27, 2020

iOS’ Now Playing widget manifests itself on the Lock Screen any time there’s music playing when your iPhone is locked. The Now Playing widget can be useful at times, but as a number of users have pointed out over the years, it has a tendency to linger even after you’ve stopped listening to music.

While most would write this off as some sort of quirk and go about their busy lives, some tend to be a bit more disturbed by this apparent flaw. Fortunately, a newly released jailbreak tweak called Finical by iOS developer FivePixels offers a simple solution: merely swipe the Now Playing widget out of the way whenever you don’t feel like looking at it.

This tweak pauses your music playback if you turn your volume all the way down

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 16, 2020

When you’re trying to enjoy music and someone approaches you to say something, you might feel compelled to turn your volume all the way down so you can hear that person’s voice. The only problem is that when you do this, your music continues to play, forcing you to miss bits of your song.

If you can relate to the somewhat frustrating experience described above, then we think you’ll probably have a deep appreciation for the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called MusicBeQuiet by iOS developer lia, as it can keep you from missing your tunes after turning your volume all the way down.

Replay adds repeat and shuffle buttons to iOS’ Now Playing widget

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 30, 2020

Given just how invested Apple seems to be in the music industry today, it continues to baffle me to this very day that the company’s own Now Playing widget for the iPhone and iPad lacks two seemingly imperative media controls that I would otherwise use all the bleeping time: Repeat and Shuffle.

If you agree with me here, then I think you’re going to love a new free jailbreak tweak release dubbed Replay by iOS developer Simalary, because it effectively brings the two aforementioned controls to iOS’ Now Playing widget in every instance where it would normally appear.

Playing produces a notification when a Now Playing track changes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 25, 2020

If you're any bit into music discovery and sometimes find yourself scratching your head about new songs when they begin playing, then we have a somewhat conscious feeling that you’re going to enjoy learning about the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Playing by iOS developer HyperDev.

Playing aims to keep you in the loop about Now Playing music as one song ends and another begins by displaying a notification banner with informative details about the new track. By default, the tweak shows you the song’s name and artist, but that can be modified with custom text if it isn’t enough to tickle your fancy.

BetterQueuing unlocks powerful music-queuing features in Apple Music

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 14, 2020

If you use Apple Music as your primary means of media consumption, then you might find yourself somewhat limited by the options presented when you perform a Haptic Touch gesture on songs in a particular playlist, especially in the song-queuing department.

BetterQueuing is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Arandomdev1 that brings improved song-queuing capabilities to this particular interface, and as shown in the screenshot examples above, it provides users with a myriad of new ways to interact with their queued playlists with little effort overall.

LetMeScrub improves the Now Playing widget’s music scrubber experience

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 13, 2020

One of the things that has always irked me about the Lock screen’s Now Playing widget in iOS is the difficulty of scrubbing through music from the interface to position myself somewhere else in the song. Fortunately, jailbreakers now have an easy way around this tedious feat.

Say hello to LetMeScrub, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer TheLazyITGuy that not only enhances song scrubbing on the Lock screen via the Now Playing widget, but also brings customizability to the scrubber’s grabber itself.

NowPlayingIcon replaces the Music icon with Now Playing media artwork

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 26, 2020

Jailbreakers who are looking for a quick and easy way to integrate some spice into their handset’s native music listening experience will do good to check out a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called NowPlayingIcon by iOS developer LacertosusDeus.

Just as the tweak’s name implies, NowPlayingIcon replaces the app icon of your Now Playing app with the album artwork of whatever media you have playing at any given time.

Vinyl simplifies iOS’ Now Playing widget

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 10, 2020

Apple designed iOS to display a Now Playing widget on your Lock screen whenever you listen to music. Its sole purpose is to make your music controls easier to access in a pinch, but some might argue that Apple make it a bit more complicated than it needed to be, especially if you don’t need all the added bells and whistles of AirPlay, progress bars, and volume scrubbers.

If you align yourself with the aforementioned group of people who find the Now Playing widget just slightly overdone, then you’ll probably enjoy the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed Vinyl by iOS developer Lightmann, as it takes a more simplistic approach to providing you with music controls on your Lock screen.

Circuliser is a fun and quirky new audio visualizer for iOS

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 8, 2020

The majority of people seem to respond positively to audio visualizers, and while it’s a shame that Apple doesn’t provide one for iOS out of the box, jailbreak tweaks like Mitsuha Infinity (or the newer Mitsuha Forever) can bring this feature to pwned handsets that are no longer under the tech giant’s sole control.

But say you don’t like Mitsuha’s Siri-like waveform visualizer; what other options do you have? We’re glad you asked, because a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Circuliser by iOS developer squ1dd13 offers a circular audio visualizer alternative that some users may find a bit more aesthetically pleasing.

ColorFlow 5 gives iOS 13’s Now Playing interface a fresh coat of paint

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 19, 2020

If you’ve recently jailbroken iOS 13 with checkra1n or unc0ver and you enjoy listening to your favorite songs or media through Apple Music or Spotify, then we have a feeling that you might enjoy a newly released jailbreak tweak called ColorFlow 5 (iOS 13) by iOS developer David Goldman.

As you might’ve inferred from the tweak’s name already, ColorFlow 5 is the fifth iteration of this tweak, and it automatically colorizes the Now Playing interface using the dominant colors from the current track’s album artwork. Examples of this are shown in the screenshots above.