AirDrop comes in handy when you want to wirelessly send files from one device to another, but the user interface leaves a lot to be desired, especially when receiving large files.
The single most significant complaint is that the intrusive AirDrop receiving pop-up appears on the screen for too long, blocking you from doing anything else until the pop-up vanishes. But a new free jailbreak tweak called SilentAir by iOS developer Muirey03 aims to change that.
SilentAir replaces the clunky stock AirPlay receiving pop-up with a sleeker Status Bar-based progress bar that remains out of your way throughout the file transfer, allowing you to multitask without intrusion.
The screenshot above shows an example of Silent Air’s Status Bar-based progress bar during AirDrop file receiving. You can compare it to the stock pop-up below:
Right off the bat, you can see how much less intrusive the new interface is. But the excitement doesn’t end there because SilentAir is fully-customizable.
SilentAir adds a preference pane to the Settings app where you can configure it to your liking:
Here, you can:
- Adjust the height of the progress bar
- Choose a custom color for the progress bar
- Toggle the “bar shine” effect
The developer includes a respring button in the preference pane so that you can save your changes.
Note: If the color picker isn’t working for you when you try to change colors, make sure you have the libcolorpicker dependency installed in Cydia.
With the stock AirDrop receiving pop-up being a significant UI oversight on Apple’s part, this tweak provides an adequate solution that looks great and performs just as well.
If you’re interested in trying SilentAir, then you can download it for free from Cydia’s Packix repository. The tweak works on jailbroken iOS 11 devices.
Do you like the stock AirDrop receiving pop-up or the SilentAir interface more? Share in the comments below.
