How To Get The Color-Changing iOS 6 Status Bar In iOS 5
We might have included the status bar tint change in our list of lesser known UI changes in iOS 6, but the truth of the matter is that the feature is among the most visible changes in iOS’ latest update. If you haven’t used iOS 6 until now, however, you might not know exactly what change we are talking about. In iOS 6, the narrow strip at the top of your iPhone’s screen changes its tint to match the color of the app that is currently open on your screen. The tint change comes into action for both stock and third-party apps. Prior to this update, a lot of people deemed the unchanging status bar an inconsistency in Apple’s otherwise impeccable UI. Although the issue has officially been addressed in iOS 6, a lot of people are still on iOS 5 due to the unavailability of Google Maps and untethered jailbreak for the new update. If you are among those, and own a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, the Cydia store has got a simple solution for you. StatusColor is a tweak that will make your device’s iOS 5 status bar act like the one in iOS 6.
StatusColor comes with a few options that actually let you control the way things work regarding the status bar in your iPhone. The three available options include Default Style, Black Translucent and Black Opaque. Turning on any of these options means that the new tint change feature will only be applied when the status bar is in the chosen state. The default option is the best one, as it truly mimics iOS 6. If you have got this option toggled on, StatusColor will make the bar change its tint no matter in which area of iOS you are. The other two options will only make the status bar reflect the app’s color if the bar is originally black.
Although StatusColor works completely as advertised, there are still a few things that could have been better. There are a few apps for which our iPhone 4’s status bar refused to change its tint (although we have to admit there were not many of those). Apart from that, the tint gets a washed-out appearance for bright colors (see the red screenshot above), dimming the time and other text in the status bar. Having said that, the functionality offered by StatusColor is a neat one, and I will certainly be keeping the tweak installed until updating to iOS 6.
StatusColor is a free tweak, and does not work with the iPad.
I’m really liking this new tweak. Thanks AT!