Status Bar

Indy brings interactive features to the Status Bar of jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 11, 2020

Your iPhone’s Status Bar is great for giving you at-a-glance information about your handset, be it your current battery level, wireless connection strength, or the time. On the other hand, the Status Bar is also perhaps one of iOS’ most underutilized interface elements.

This is something that iOS developer Burrit0z wanted to change about the iPhone’s user experience, and so he created a new jailbreak tweak dubbed Indy to do just that. As you can discern for yourself in the screenshot examples above, the tweak gives users a lot more insight about information depicted by Status Bar indicators with no more than a tap.

This tweak gives the Status Bar’s battery indicator an RGB effect when charging

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 5, 2020

RGB lighting effects are popular for computer peripherals, especially in the PC gaming community. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple doesn’t offer anything of the such for its platforms, and this includes the iPhone and iPad.

If you’re looking to add a touch of RGB to your jailbroken iPhone that isn’t so overpowering that it looks completely gaudy, then you might enjoy a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed rgbBattery by iOS developer jesseb0rn.

This tweak adds a seconds indicator to the Status Bar’s time display

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 1, 2020

If you’re anything like me and you’d rather see more information than less, then you probably wouldn’t mind having a seconds indicator in your iPhone’s Status Bar-based time display.

Apple doesn’t provide an option for the aforementioned scenario out of the box, but by installing a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed TimeSeconds by iOS developer Netskao, you can circumvent the controlling tech giant and add this feature to the Status Bar all by yourself.

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.

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.

Status Weather brings weather information to the iPhone’s Status Bar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 12, 2022

The iPhone’s Status Bar has always been used as something of an always-visible information display for pertinent information. But while that may be true, one thing it seems to be missing is a weather display of some kind.

A multitude of jailbreak tweaks have brought weather displays to the Status Bar over the years, but a newly released add-on dubbed Status Weather by iOS developer Jax Roth is the latest of such attempts to offer a pleasant solution for pwned handset users.

Modern Battery upgrades the Status Bar battery indicator on notched iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 12, 2022

Lots of iPhone users aren’t happy with the fact that you can’t have a numeric battery percentage in the Status Bar on a notched handset, and you could count me in that camp. As someone to consistently enabled this feature on the older and more traditional iPhones all the time, it felt like culture shock adapting to a user experience without it.

Fortunately, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Modern Battery by iOS developer Jax Roth can help in this department, as it can put a numeric battery percentage indicator directly inside of the native Status Bar battery icon.

TypeCentury displays iMessage read receipts and typing indicators anywhere in iOS

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 11, 2020

Some of the most compelling features that set iMessage apart from traditional SMS in Apple’s Messages app are the creature comfort features that it provides such as read receipts, typing indicators, and the lack of character limits. Among those, read receipts and typing indicators are some of my favorites because they lets me know when the other person is typing so I can refrain from interrupting them mid-dialogue and when they've read my message so I can nag them about why they didn't respond to me later.

But as anyone with a jailbroken device will tell you, there are always ways that things can be improved. The much appreciated iMessage typing indicator is no exception to that rule, and that’s one of the primary reasons why I’m advocating for a newly released jailbreak tweak called TypeCentury by iOS developer captinc.

Add some character to your Status Bar with WonderBar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 24, 2020

The Status Bar is something that iPhone and iPad users alike will have in their field of view most of the time, unless of course those users are using a lot of full-screen apps like games. With that in mind, it may come as no surprise that this is one of the first things that jailbreakers like to customize after liberating their handset from Apple’s control.

Say hello to WonderBar, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Aryan Nambiar that provides what seems like boundless customization for the battery percentage display and more in your pwned handset’s Status Bar.

Meteorite gets iOS 13 support, adds live weather to the Status Bar & Weather icon

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 20, 2020

We’ve seen a lot of jailbreak tweaks over the years that could animate the Home screen’s Weather icon with the current weather information outside. But with the jailbreak community taking a hard shift toward iOS 13 in recent months, modern necessities call for modern solutions.

Meteorite is a free extension created by iOS developer qwertyuiop1379 that has been out for quite a while, but just recently picked up support for iOS 13. Like other tweaks in the past, Meteorite animates the Weather app icon with current weather conditions, but it also adds a new display to the Status Bar.

Waqt adds the date to your iPhone’s Status Bar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 18, 2020

Apple programmed iOS in such a way that the iPhone’s Status Bar would display the current time. But unlike the iPhone’s larger cousin, the iPad, its Status Bar doesn’t display other pertinent time-centric information like the date.

Fortunately for jailbreakers, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed Waqt by iOS developer P2KDev can change this apparent shortcoming on Apple's part.