'Flex' Lets You Create Modifications for Your iOS Device

[Anthony Bouchard]

A rather interesting application hit the Cydia store today, called Flex by iOS developer John Coates. With Flex, you can actually create your own modifications on your iOS device without any programming knowledge. Having knowledge of the inner workings of iOS does help, however.

When you open Flex, you will see three separate tabs: Patches, Cloud, and About. The Patches tab is your home tab and this is where all the modifications that you create will appear after you have created them. The Cloud tab will allow you to download modifications that other Flex users have created. And the About tab includes documentation, such as how to use Flex:



Creating modifications is done by tapping on the '+' button from the Patches tab. You’ll be guided through finding the application you want to modify, and then you’ll be able to browse through all of the libraries, classes, and methods associated with that application. You can create a modification for just about anything on your iOS device, so the application is pretty limitless. Anything that you create or download can be enabled or disabled from the Patches tab at any time.



If you don’t want to create anything, you can simply browse through the patches that other people have already made and uploaded to the Cloud in the Cloud tab of Flex. You can tap on any of them that interest you and download them. You can enable them from the Patches tab after they finish downloading. None of these modifications will cost any money.

For obvious reasons, it’s difficult to recommend Flex to everyone. Flex goes really deep into iOS… very deep. So deep that some novice users may actually create things that could be detrimental to the device, or even to software on the device. While things can be easily enabled or disabled from the Patches tab in the Flex application, it’s not absolutely foolproof. We really recommend having some kind of knowledge of the inner workings of iOS before trying to create your own modifications in Flex.

The developer notes in the Cydia description some examples of the modifications that you can make in Flex:

• Show all timestamps in iMessages
• Show contact photos in iMessages
• Remove the camera grabber from the Lock Screen
• Enable unlimited Mobile Safari tabs
• Hide the Newsstand application

Flex is compatible with both iOS 5 and iOS 6 and works on any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. The package is for sale in the BigBoss repository for $3.99. Use Flex at your own risk.

[aidanharris]

Is there good documentation? I remember reading about this a while back and it seems pretty interesting...

[Anthony Bouchard]

Is there good documentation? I remember reading about this a while back and it seems pretty interesting...

The documentation takes you through how to use Flex to enable timestamps in the Messages application for iMessages. It does a good job of representing how the interface works and what you need to do. However, if you don't know the inner workings of iOS very well, you're going to have a hard time understanding the code names for classes, methods, and libraries.

[Raybeast]

It's released! Yessss

[JohnCoates]

Is there good documentation? I remember reading about this a while back and it seems pretty interesting...

Here's a link to the Flex documentation. Flex Documentation It's pretty easy to make tweaks in it, many people with zero programming experience have been able to create cool stuff. In fact we have 84 different patches in the Flex Community Cloud as of this moment.

[aidanharris]

It's released! Yessss

And here's its first bug. Click on the cloud and then temple run 2:

[bcon1208]

As a software developer who hasn't had the time to learn objective C yet, I'm like a kid in a candy store! I'm gonna have fun with this.

[Raybeast]

Not working for me... iPhone 4 on 6.0.1 tethered jailbreak. Every time I click anything it says Couldn't write to patches file. Please report this issue.

[tayman]

Not working for me... iPhone 4 on 6.0.1 tethered jailbreak. Every time I click anything it says Couldn't write to patches file. Please report this issue.

Or you could take the same amount of time you wasted asking him to report the issue, and contact the dev yourself?

-On an another note, this is an awesome idea, awesome enough for me to break out the good ol iphone 4

[Raybeast]

Or you could take the same amount of time you wasted asking him to report the issue, and contact the dev yourself?

-On an another note, this is an awesome idea, awesome enough for me to break out the good ol iphone 4

The message actually said "Please report this issue." Calm down

[rcm]

and the list of apps to get after JB keeps getting longer

[iRevival]

and the list of apps to get after JB keeps getting longer

Yeah. I've got a note file that's probably close to 500kb at this point. Haha. Really excited to get my 5 jailbroken.

[Raybeast]

Yeah. I've got a note file that's probably close to 500kb at this point. Haha. Really excited to get my 5 jailbroken.

Recommend any great tweaks?

[Zokunei]

This looks like the best jailbreak tweak ever.

[Anthony Bouchard]

Raybeast, according to the developer the issue you're having is linked to pirated copies.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to help you here if that's the case.

[thevmax]

Or you could take the same amount of time you wasted asking him to report the issue, and contact the dev yourself?

-On an another note, this is an awesome idea, awesome enough for me to break out the good ol iphone 4

I agree with you...we all need to be responsible for whatever we download to our own devices.
If you are capable of downloading an app, you should be able to reach the developer by bringing the app up in Cydia,
and then send supporting documentation to the developer. It's basically built into the apps..."I'm just sayin'..."

[Anthony Bouchard]

And here's its first bug. Click on the cloud and then temple run 2:

Your issue will be fixed.

[tayman]

The message actually said "Please report this issue." Calm down

Oh I know what it said, I was just simply pointing out the fact that you might get it solved a bit quicker if you took the time to report the issue your self. Although I may have came off a bit rude, I didnt mean it the way. Sorry if you took it offensive.

[pakitos]

Am I the only one who will probably get this to hide that stupid newstand? Gotta check for nonewsisgoodnews first :P

[JohnCoates]

And here's its first bug. Click on the cloud and then temple run 2:

Sorry about that! It was a temporary bug while I was adding download counts to Cloud patches, all fixed now.

Not working for me... iPhone 4 on 6.0.1 tethered jailbreak. Every time I click anything it says Couldn't write to patches file. Please report this issue.

This is a problem with the pirated version.