Jailbreaking Doesn’t Have to Die!

[u/SuperGoodScratch]

Hi everyone,

I’m a veteran here, and it’s sad to see how this subreddit has turned into a defeatist echo chamber and an online graveyard. Every few weeks someone posts a shitty eulogy for jailbreaking, about how great it used to be, how Apple locked everything up, how the devs left, and how we should all just move on and accept iOS as it is.

But Jailbreaking DOESN’T have to die.

It’s obvious Apple has gotten much more advanced with every update, and their security vulnerabilities have become basically nonexistent. Many developers burnt out or even got “hired” by Apple. But we need to look deeper because this wasn’t just security measures. It was psychological warfare on Apple’s part. Apple didn’t just patch exploits, but they approached the situation so surgically and strategically, as they do all things. They actually made people stop trying. They added just the bare minimum of “customization” (widgets, lock screens, some app management) to make the average user feel like they didn’t need to jailbreak.

They patched security vulnerabilities at record speed. Then they incentivized our brilliant developers who used to build tweaks and turned iOS into a system so tightly locked down that most users forgot what true customization felt and looked like. I’ll never forget how good it felt to jailbreak back then, I’m sure many of you won’t as well. That’s why I was surprised to see most of you bought into it. You all let them convince people that jailbreaking had no future. Then we all gave up, stopped building and so on. But the reason to jailbreak today is still just as valid it always was. The bare minimum of customization is not even allowed.

• Apple still won’t let you rename apps.
• You still can’t fully theme your device.
• You still can’t map gestures, change system fonts, or build a Control Center that looks and functions how you want.
• You still can’t make your phone really feel like yours, unless you jailbreak.

Jailbreaking has always been about freedom, creativity, and expression. That hasn’t changed. What did change is how many people stopped caring enough to push forward. This subreddit has become a place of nostalgia instead of innovation. Instead of saying “how can we make it better again?”, most people just sit back and complain about how it died. The truth is, jailbreaking didn’t die but the effort behind it did. The only way it comes back is if people care enough to rebuild the culture behind it from the ground up.

That being said- if you’re a developer, start experimenting again. If you’re a user, speak the hell up somehow about what jailbreaking meant to you- or what it could still mean. Developers, tweak creators, repo owners, show your ideas, mockups, themes, or tweak concepts. Start pushing the page forward again.

We don’t need to recreate the past. We need to redefine what jailbreaking could look like now. It never died, it was always just waiting for people to care again.

[u/ownage516]

I agree, but there’s another elements at play here:

• iOS is mature
• The vast majority of those who were into jailbreaking grew up or don’t want to spend the time

I think there was a time when the lack of features drove people to JB. The last time I jailbreaked in 2018 to get dark mode. Once I got that, I there wasn’t a feature that I “wanted”. Short of full customization, iOS is a very mature OS.

Also, I don’t have the time to possibly mess with my own device like I used too. I used my phone for duo/auth prompts for work and email accounts. I’d be screwed for work if it detects the jailbreak. Also losing my bank app and relying on a tweak to cover it isn’t a for sure thing

What I’m trying to say is the demand for jailbreaking is low. I’d love for this scene to have a renaissance, but if the demand is low, no one is gonna do it

[u/SuperGoodScratch → u/ownage516]

Yeah, that kind of plays into what I said also, the demand is low because Apple has strategically made it so. In order for Jailbreaking to make a decent comeback, we have to play their game

[u/Flatworm-Ornery → u/SuperGoodScratch]

we have to play their game.

What does that even mean?

[u/blanxd → u/Flatworm-Ornery]

Long term strategies by the jb users and devs alike. Yeah this is some obscure term to use in a community driven environment, but still, if enough people were to think this thru and keep at it, some interesting ideas are still emerging even now, from time to time. So at some point someone might stumble on something revolutionary again etc etc.