The iPhone’s App Switcher has always been somewhat blasé, lacking features and UI capabilities that we didn’t even know we wanted or needed until the jailbreak community started making us keenly aware of them.
iOS developer Ginsu is out this weekend with another slick jailbreak tweak release in the form of KillControl, a free add-on that lets users control their iPhone’s App Switcher behavior with respect to forcefully quitting recently used apps.
iPhone users have long decried the platform’s multitasking experience, especially compared with side-by-side apps on the iPad or windowed apps on desktop computers. The App Switcher just doesn’t cut it for users who want to get stuff done as quickly as possible.
Anyone that does even the smallest amount of multitasking on their iPhone should be avidly familiar with the App Switcher. That’s because it’s the primary way to move from one app to another without visiting the Home Screen.
The App Switcher is, at least in my opinion, one of the most underwhelming interfaces on the iPhone. The full-screen card switcher interface makes such poor use of the expansive screen real estate that it’s no surprise we see so many jailbreak tweaks attempting to fix this.
The latest of such tweaks is one called Vaon by iOS developer atar13, which not only converts the App Switcher from a card-based interface to a grid-based one, but also adds an iOS 14-style battery widget to the bottom.
Despite the fact that force-closing all the apps in your App Switcher isn’t the best of practices on the iOS or iPadOS platform, it’s still something that I continue to see people do time and time again.
Perhaps the most painful part of it all is watching when someone accidentally force-closes an app that they didn’t intend to – usually their most recently-used app which they were trying to improve the performance of by freeing up system memory in the process of force-closing all their other apps.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.