The iPhone lockscreen hasn’t changed much in the past six versions of iOS, with the exception of the addition of a camera slider. Atom is a new jailbreak tweak that seeks to completely redesign the lockscreen and add new functionality, and it does not disappoint.
Keep reading to find out how Atom can make your lockscreen even more useful.
Atom replaces the “slide to unlock” bar with a round grabber at the bottom of the screen. Dragging the circle around the grabber reveals the “atom,” a group of up to six app icons around an unlock icon in the center. You can pick your favorite six apps to build the atom from the tweak’s settings.
Animation is one thing that really shines in Atom. When you put your finger on the grabber, the atom icons “pop” in. When you hover the grabber over an icon, it grows and the others around it shrink. When you release the grabber, the icons pop back into the lockscreen and the grabber jumps back to the bottom of the screen. It’s all so smooth that when I first installed the tweak, I just dragged the grabber around the screen continuously playing with the icons and forgot why I was unlocking my phone in the first place.
Atom also smartly hides any active notifications on the lockscreen when the atom is visible so that the screen doesn’t get cluttered. When you release the grabber, the notifications reappear.
Some users may be disappointed that the icons on the atom don’t display notification badges, but I actually found that I preferred it without them after using the tweak for some time.
Atom is a great lockscreen replacement for users who jump around between a few key apps several times a day. The new unlock gesture takes some getting used to, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using it during the development process definitely recommend giving it a try.
Atom works on jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches running iOS 5 or iOS 6. You can get it for $1.99 on the BigBoss repo today.
