One of my favorite parts about jailbreaking over the years has been installing custom app launchers that make accessing my apps easier. There haven’t been that many tweaks of this nature in recent memory, and that’s why I’m excited to show you the rebirth of a classic jailbreak tweak dubbed InstaLauncher by iOS developer Jonathan Winger-Lang.
InstaLauncher has been around for several years, but it was just recently re-released with full support for the latest Electra and unc0ver jailbreaks encompassing iOS 11 and iOS 12. Those who remember the original tweak should see InstaLauncher for what it is: a tweak that lets you launch any app on your device in a jiff without having to scour multiple Home Screen pages.
The video above is somewhat old, published to our YouTube channel back in 2013 when iOS still looked skeuomorphic, but the concept and functionality behind InstaLauncher are both still very much the same.
Once installed, InstaLauncher puts a preference pane in the
Settings app where you can configure the tweak to your liking:
Here, you can:
- Choose an Activator-based activation method
- Hide specific apps from the app launcher
- Hide or show the recently-used apps panel
- Configure the recently-used apps panel layout
- Hide or show the favorite apps panel
- Choose which apps will be your favorites in the InstaLauncher interface
- Configure the favorite apps panel layout
- Switch between light or dark theme
- Hide or show the cursor
- Make the close button invisible
- Choose which side the alphabetical slider appears on
- Toggle a light blur (requires iOS 8 or later)
- Enable an animation for launching
- Group apps with special characters in their name for easier access
- Use a legacy blur (experimental)
- Show app identifiers for debugging purposes
If you’ve ever used the original InstaLauncher before, then these options should look familiar, as they haven’t changed much. We particularly appreciate that you can choose your own activation method, switch between light and dark modes, and select whether the tweak shows favorite or recently-used apps in the quick panel.
Those interested in trying the new InstaLauncher can download it from Cydia’s Packix repository for $3.00. The tweak supports all jailbroken devices including iPhones and iPads running iOS 6 through 12.
Will you be adding InstaLauncher to your jailbroken device?
Tell us why or why not in the comments section below.
