Jay Freeman, known in the jailbreaking community as Saurik, has released an update to his Cydia Impactor tool which allow it to work with devices running the iOS 11 beta. If you have never heard of Cydia Impactor before, you aren’t alone. The days when jailbreaking was a common thing are over and with the reduction of people jailbreaking there was also a reduction in people using Cydia – the popular jailbroken app store. However, you don’t have to have a jailbroken device to use Cydia Impactor which is what makes this update for iOS 11 so exciting.
Basically, Cydia Impactor is a GUI-based tool that works to sideload IPAs and APKs to mobile devices. Improved versions of apps that are not available in the Apple App Store are popular installs for a lot of users. For example, Snapchat++ is a very popular app that adds additional functionality to the service which is not included in the official app. Again, with Cydia Impactor, a user doesn’t have to have a jailbroken device. This offers the best of both worlds. Users can run the latest version of iOS and enjoy the newest features while also enjoying the added functionality offered by some sideloaded apps.
So, what’s the catch? Well, Cydia Impactor for iOS 11 is like an semi-untethered jailbreak in a way. Every 7 days you will have to run the program and connect your device in order to re-sign the sideloaded apps if you want them to continue working. That’s not the biggest inconvenience for most people but it could be kind of annoying if you don’t keep good reminders in your calendar.
If you want to check out the update to Cydia Impactor for iOS 11 then you can download it here. The process is not overly complicated but you should have an above average level of technical know how before you take on something like this. I don’t have an iOS 11 device to test on right now but many people on Twitter have had positive comments. If you have given Cydia Impactor a try on your iOS 11 device then let us know how well the process worked in the comments section below!
