It’s been a very long time in the making, but the release of Abstergo is almost upon us. Abstergo, as you may remember, has been talked about and worked on for over a year. It is the concept and creation of Andrew Richardson and Joshua Tucker, and it promises to make managing your notifications better on iOS.
Needless to say, lots and lots of time has been invested into nearly every aspect of the tweak. Tucker, in a candid discussion with him via Twitter, stated that the pair worked hard on one particular portion of the tweak — the ability to add notifications back to the Lock screen — for a couple of weeks.
With its release a mere six days away, Abstergo is shaping up to be a tweak that has been well worth waiting for. I believe it truly will lend a better ability to managing iOS notifications. It’s one of those tweaks that’s a bit difficult to explain how it can help you without seeing it in action for yourself. For that reason, we’ve hit the video lab to give you an in-depth hands-on demonstration of the tweak’s most intimate functions. Take a look past the break for the full scoop.
From my usage with the tweak, I’ve been able to break up its functions into a few key areas. First and foremost, Abstergo allows you to clear all notifications from the Lock screen in one fell swoop. This is accomplished by dragging down on the Lock screen when you have more than one notification on screen at once. A quick swipe quickly clears all notifications display on the Lock screen without unlocking your device. Abstergo also lends the ability to clear individual notifications using swipe gestures while in Notification Center.
The second big aspect of Abstergo is its ability to set snooze reminders for notifications. This can be accomplished by using a simple tap and hold gesture on the notification itself. Tap and hold gestures can be used while on the Lock screen, in Notification Center, and you can even execute them on messages received in the Messages app. Reminders can be established in 5 minute blocks of time. Once enough time elapses for the reminder to take effect, the notifications appear just as they would appear if the notification was just received for the first time.
Once a reminder is set, you can add the notification back to the Lock screen by means of a tap and hold gesture, lending further emphasis to its importance. You can tell which notifications have reminders set for them by means of the little clock icon residing to the right of the notification. Reminders can be easily cleared and edited, again, by using simple tap and hold gestures on the notification itself.
Abstergo features a preference panel in the Settings app, but for now, it’s only used for contacting the developers of the tweak. Since everything about Abstergo uses stock iOS UI, there was really no place for the developers to interject any personal sentiments without slapping a preference panel in the Settings app.
For those of you who feel that iOS’ notifications lack the flexibility that they should, you’ll be especially happy with Abstergo. In the famous words of Mr. Sam Cooke, It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come. Well folks, as far as notifications on iOS go, that change is almost here. On April 21st, you’ll be able to purchase Abstergo from Cydia for $1.99. Hit me up in the comments section.
