I use Face ID and/or Touch ID so often these days that I’ve all but forgotten what it’s like to need to enter a passcode manually. Still, iOS occasionally asks for it, such as after rebooting your handset and following a multi-day timeout period. That said, you’ll still stumble upon the passcode entry screen at one point or another.
And that brings me to my next point; if you’re jailbroken, then you might want to customize the look and feel of your passcode entry screen. Fortunately, there’s a new jailbreak tweak in town that will let you do that.
Enter Hive, a new free release developed by Muirey03 that applies a beehive-like hexagonal pattern to your passcode entry interface. As depicted in the screenshot examples above, you have full control over the color scheme and a variety of other factors, enabling you to dial in the perfect aesthetic and user experience.
After you’ve installed Hive, you’ll find a preference pane
in the Settings app where you can configure the tweak to your liking:
Here, you can:
- Choose a primary color for the background of the
Hive interface - Choose a text color for the Hive interface
- Choose a separator color for the lines
throughout the Hive interface - Configure a custom contrast amount
- Enable Hive’s hexagonal unlocking animation
- Configure a custom unlocking animation duration
In case you wondered what the unlocking animation would look like, we’ve went ahead and prepared an animated GIF to show you. Check it out below:
Hive is a bold departure from the standard passcode entry
screen we’re all familiar with, and if you like having something that stands
out from the crowd, then Hive is a great option. Functionally, nothing changes;
you still tap on the numbers to enter your passcode; however, the number keys
are aligned differently than they would be in the stock interface, which might
take some getting used to.
If you’re interested in trying Hive, then you can download it for free from Cydia’s Packix repository. The tweak works on all jailbroken iOS 11 devices and is open-source on the developer’s GitHub repository for anyone interested in learning about how it works.
What are your thoughts about the Hive passcode entry
interface? Share in the comments section below.
