Finally, a sad farewell to the best tweak ever (BiteSMS)

[Snide]

With the news that AT&T was ending the 2-year subsidized phones, I finally bit the bullet and got a 6S.
Using my iPhone 5 with a badly shattered and unresponsive screen for a couple weeks made the decision easier. ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to pay my respects and lament my loss (RIP). What's the state of affairs with the alternatives these days? Apple Quick Reply appears to be a big improvement over previous stock functionality, but still seems pretty limited.

 

[lyceumHQ]

I've not found anything even remotely close so have stuck with apples quick reply. It's not perfect but it's better than it used to be (ie no quick reply at all).

 

[eyoungren]

Columba or Couria are the only two alternatives.

I pay homage though by changing my Messages icon.

 

[lyceumHQ]

Columba or Couria are the only two alternatives.

I pay homage though by changing my Messages icon.

View attachment 611258

OT but could you tel me how you change an app icon?

I've ditched Facebook app and switched to friendly as it's less crap but the icon is awful! So would ideally like to change it o the standard Facebook one.

 

[Applejuiced]

I really miss bitesms too.
I'd pay $20-30 for an ios 9 bitesms update but unfortunately that chapter is done

 

[eyoungren]

I'll describe how I did it. Your process might be different.

Stock apps are located here: /Applications
User apps are here: /var/mobile/containers/bundle/application

If you are using iFile (as I did) you want to turn on App names so you can see what app you are dealing with.

In the case of the Messages app it's actually called MobileSMS.app

Once there, scroll down until you find the AppIcon PNG files. What you want to do is edit those files with your icon. I selected them all then copied them and dropped them into Dropbox using iFile. I then used Photoshop to get the icon I wanted, opened all the PNGs, deleted the contents and then placed my icon in those PNG files, sizing down as necessary. Then I saved the pngs.

Back in iFile I renamed the originals with .bak at the end (so I still have them). Then I copied the PNGs back from Dropbox.

Next to force the change I used iCleaner Pro to clean cache files then resprang. You may have to reboot, but you do need to clean the cache files. Otherwise springboard retains the old images by loading the cache.

When you edit the icons make sure you are using transparent icons. Otherwise you'll get ugly white in the background.

 

[lyceumHQ]

I'll describe how I did it. Your process might be different.

Stock apps are located here: /Applications
User apps are here: /var/mobile/containers/bundle/application

If you are using iFile (as I did) you want to turn on App names so you can see what app you are dealing with.

In the case of the Messages app it's actually called MobileSMS.app

Once there, scroll down until you find the AppIcon PNG files. What you want to do is edit those files with your icon. I selected them all then copied them and dropped them into Dropbox using iFile. I then used Photoshop to get the icon I wanted, opened all the PNGs, deleted the contents and then placed my icon in those PNG files, sizing down as necessary. Then I saved the pngs.

Back in iFile I renamed the originals with .bak at the end (so I still have them). Then I copied the PNGs back from Dropbox.

Next to force the change I used iCleaner Pro to clean cache files then resprang. You may have to reboot, but you do need to clean the cache files. Otherwise springboard retains the old images by loading the cache.

When you edit the icons make sure you are using transparent icons. Otherwise you'll get ugly white in the background.

View attachment 611266 View attachment 611267

Thank you! Will give it a go when I get home.

 

[eyoungren]

Thank you! Will give it a go when I get home.

No problem!

One thing I forgot to mention. When you are all done, make sure and check the permissions of the PNG files. They should be exactly the same as the permissions on the original PNGs.

 

[Snide]

Columba or Couria are the only two alternatives.

I'm curious how these two compare on IOS 9, now that they've had some time to sort things out.

 

[eyoungren]

Well, I use Columba. I mentioned Couria, but I'm not sure if it's been updated or not.

Columba's ok. It has basic QR/QC functionality - but BiteSMS it's not.