It may seem like the jailbreak community has slowed down of late, but that isn’t strictly the case. While it’s true that some old favorite jailbreak tweaks haven’t received the love and attention we would have liked, there is always someone else waiting to take up the slack.
One jailbreak tweak that has been a staple of the commnunity over the years is BiteSMS, but for whatever reason it never got update for iOS 8 and now it seems like it may never actually get it. That’s a real shame too, because we’ve been big fans of BiteSMS since its introduction and various redesigns, but looks like it’s time to move on.
Hoping to fill the void left by BiteSMS, Columba is available to download from the Cydia jailbreak store and it brings with it some of the functionaity we would want from an advanced messaging app or tweak. The usual quick reply feature is there, as is a couple of different ways of starting a new message without having to open the Messages app first, but Columba doesn’t come without a warning.
For starters, even though the core of a good jailbreak tweak is there, it isn’t perfect. There are some odd performance issues with pauses here and there and some users have reported more serious issues when they have more than one quick reply-type tweak installed. So long as you go into this thing with that in mind though, you should be OK.
The other issue is the price. We don’t object to paying the $2.99, but given some of the issues and the need for quite a bit of work still, Columba may be best left alone until some updates have arrived.
If you do take the plunge, you’ll find a quick compose window that can be invoked via the usual host of Activator methods or using the volume HUD should you prefer, and Columba even adds a button to the standard Messages app that allows the composing of texts based on predefined templates. There’s even the ability to schedule messages as well.
If you’ve been waiting for BiteSMS to get an update and just can’t wait any longer, Columba is worth a look if you can cope with the potential fallout of bugs and perfomace issues as explained above. If not, then keep an eye on it as it gets updates because once it does, this could be the BiteSMS replacement we’ve been waiting for.
You can download Columba from the BigBoss repo in Cydia.
For tutorials on how to jailbreak and install Cydia:
You may also like to check out:
- Jailbreak iOS 8.3 / iOS 8.2 / iOS 8.1.3 Status Update
- Jailbreak iOS 8.1.2 And iOS 8.1.1 With Taig On iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 5s, iPad, More [Updated]
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