What is Cydia and What’s So Special About It?

While there are lots of idevice users who have jailbroken their devices many times and rely depend on Cydia, Cydia Tweeks and Cydia applications, there also are new guys who are trying it first time.

May be you just jailbroke your iDevice and want to know more about Cydia? Honestly, you learn by doing it. So I vwould suggest that you just dive right in and start exploring things in Cydia, trying out Cydia apps and tweeks. However, Cydia is not like the App Store, it’s really a store for all jailbreak apps, tweaks, themes and settings.

You can completely change the look and functionality of your iPhone with help of Cydia!

First of all, Cydia is not available in Apple’s App Store, nor is it a website. it is installed on your device using a “jailbreaking” tools from Taig or Pangu.

So where do we start? What’s Cydia? Why is it so important or interesting? And how can you really make the best use of Cydia apps?

lets start, What is Cydia (Full article about Cydia can be found here)?

Cydia is a common term for the “Codling Moth” (worm in the apple).  why the name? well Think of Cydia app just like the App Store Within the App Store. You have ability to discover all the apps that Apple approves to be listed on official App store.  Cydia is an App Store for all the apps, tweaks, settings and options that Apple doesn’t / wouldn’t enable in the App Store or on the device. so, it is worm in the apple.  It is the Apple (or may be  its founder, Mr. Jobs) being a control-freak. in general apple i devices are ok, but not once you decide to change things like lock screen, dock / springboard icons, status bar styles etc.

lets cover some of the tweaks and finalize if it is worth of having Cydia on idevice or not.

one of my favorite tweaks –  Zeppelin, it allows changes to the carrier logo .

 

Winterboard – one of the best apps for changing the themes on the idevices.

also, you can hide names from the icons

Apps: There are tons of Cydia apps that change the way your iPhone / iPad works. For instance: 

File Manager –  iFile that offers a complete file manager and viewer for the iPhone. It gives full access to the file system including system files. It also allows you to edit text files and property lists, which can be quite useful occasionally

Picture-in-Picture Mode on Any Device – With the release of iOS 9, Apple introduced Picture-in-Picture mode for iPad users, allowing them to separate videos into a different window while doing other tasks. This feature is limited to iPad models but with a jailbroken device, you can install a tweak VideoPane that allows you to detach any video into a separate window that can be placed on any side of the screen.

BytaFont 2 –  allows you change the system font on your iPhone. It allows you to change the font in apps, Lock screen, and more.

 

Power Tap – Power Tap adds useful option to the Slide to Power Off bar such as Reboot, Respring and Safe Mode.

Priority Hub – is a very simple and handy tweak, it makes Lock screen notifications much easier to manage if you are receiving a lot of them from different apps. For each app associated with a notification, you’ll see an app icon located on your Lock screen.

Lock Screen Themes – It has thousands  of lock-screen themes that just totally change the way your lock screen appears. Make the clock and camera icon disappear, change the way the slider looks (or make it disappear too), get some cool weather info on your lock screen!

Functionality – Remember when Apple said FaceTime was limited to Wi-Fi only? Jailbreak tweaks like FaceTime 3G broke free of that rule and allowed users to make FaceTime calls via 3G networks..There are things like CCSettings a super useful tweak that allows users to configure different options in Control Center.

BioProtect – Touch ID enabled jailbreak tweak, dedicated to protect individual apps with Touch ID. The tweak listens to application launch events or other protected items events and blocks them if they are listed as protected until you enter your Touch ID (or passcode)! You can configure it to protect access to applications, folders, settings panes, flipswitches, control center items, power down, SIM unlock and more!

Notification Privacy – This tweak allow you to customize a filter text which then will be displayed on the lock screen instead of the content of the message you.

SwipteHome – A tweak can quickly kill all app (or respring only when home screen left) by swipe up home screen.

Now all of these and many other tweaks are developed by third-party developers and the only place to find them is Cydia. Every one of these get listed on Cydia through what is called repos (repositories).

Cydia: sections, Repos, Sources, Status

As you begin using Cydia, you’ll need to know a few things like Structure:

Cydia: Here you’ll find some sponsored apps, account information, sources FAQ and some important settings and information.

Sources: a source is basically a specialized website viewable in Cydia that allowes users to download or view uploaded content.  Cydia includes a few default sources (BigBoss, Cydia / Telesphoreo, Dev Team, ModMyi, and ZodTTD & MacCiti) that host thousands of popular and useful packages. You are free to add un-trusted third-party sources, but you do that at your own risk and Packages from third-party sources may not have the same strict quality control as the packages in default sources, and no one checks them.

Changes: All new programs and updates can be found here. This particular tab is updated every time Cydia is opened.

Installed: Allows you to manage tweaks or apps you have installed on your device.

Search: If you know the name of the tweak, you can go to this tab and start searching by entering the name.

Remember to always, Back up your iOS device by iTunes or iCloud before starting experimenting with Cydia.

If these reasons are enough to jailbreak your iOS device, then make sure to check out guide on how to jailbreak iOS 9.2 – iOS 9.3.3 using latest Pangu jailbreak tools / methods.

 

1. Semi-untethered / tethered Jailbreak IOS 9.3.3 and 9.2 from Safari (no PC required)

2. Semi-untethered / tethered Jailbreak IOS 9.2 & 9.3.3