The availability of gestures on newer iPhone models and not on older iPhones has created such a long bridge of difference among Apple iPhone devices. This difference is especially seen between iPhone models with a home button and models with a long span of OLED digitizer and no home button.
Gestures are a great way to keep a continuous flow of navigation on an iPhone by just swiping in different directions which gets different things done. Is it possible to also get this feature on older iPhones? Well, you’re about to find out if this is possible and if yes how to go about it.
How To Get Gesture Navigation On Older iPhones
Users of iPhone models from 5s up until iPhone 8 plus feel left out of newer features like gesture navigation. What you have to know is that it was Apple’s choice of design to only enable gesture navigation for newer iPhones.
However, it’s possible to have your iPhone 8 plus or lower make use of advanced features like the gesture navigation, only made possible by breaking the rule. Yes, you’ll have to break the rule by jailbreaking your iPhone.
The subject of iPhone Jailbreaking is surely not one permitted by Apple, but it lets you use your iPhone with lots of restrictions to its fullest. Part of the exploitation made available by jailbreaking a device is the ability to use third party apps that are unavailable on the app store. You simply just have full access.
However, I must warn that you’ll be breaking all guarantees on your iPhone the moment you jailbreak and it can sometimes be a dangerous route to go and can potentially crash an iPhone. Use the jailbreaking guide in this article only at your own discretion.
To jailbreak your iPhone, follow the below guide;
- First make sure you have your data backed up. You do not want to lose anything in the case something goes wrong which is not unlikely when performing a jailbreak
- Also ensure you’re running on an IOS 14 or lower. This method exploits the vulnerabilities in the IOS make up to bring down the iPhone defense.
- On your MAC. Download the software Checkra1n. don’t, worry, that’s not a typo. You can use the link Checkra1n.in. Also, you may not be able to fulfill this step on a windows device. For now, it’s just limited to the MAC and LINUX platforms.
- With the software download, tap on the DMG file. You can do this from the download folder
- To install the App, drag the icon to the macOS application folder.
- Right click on the Checkra1n app inside of the application folder. Click on Open.
- A pop up may appear stating that macOS is unable to verify the app, just click on Open to bypass it.
- Using a lightning cable from your Mac, plug in your iPhone and accept the prompt on your iPhone asking you to trust the PC.
- Click on the Start button to begin the process and follow the onscreen instructions to activate DFU mode on your iPhone.
- The Checkra1n app should automatically detect your iPhone and immediately begin the jail breaking.
- Once the jailbreak process is complete, a loader app will appear on your screen. Open it and tap on Cydia to install the app. Cydia is the app from which you’ll be able to download every other software or application.
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Note that you may have to repeat the process a couple times to successfully jailbreak your iPhone, although that’s unlikely. With your iPhone now able to run other software with restriction, over to the next step to actually get your iPhone using gesture navigation.
Follow the below guide;
- Open Cydia. The app that came from the jail break we made.
- Tap on the search button at the top of the app.
- Type in Gestures13 and tap on it. There are other apps available that can achieve the same end. But the Gestures13 app has shown to work so well.
- Tap on install
- Tap on Restart Springboard at the bottom of the app
- This can take a while to load, not more than 2 minutes. When completely loaded, it’ll display your home screen.
- Gesture navigation will now be activated on your device.
Does iOS Have Gesture Navigation?
Yes, however, they were not a real thing until iPhone 11. This implies that older iPhone models will continue with the same crude method of navigation. It’s not very clear why Apple chose to take too long before catching up with other mobile phone manufacturers on gesture navigation.
Realistically, if ever you want improved features, Apple advises that you go ahead and buy a new iPhone. After all, that’s one way they get to have you buy their recent iPhone products, by making some features exclusive to a certain line up of iPhones.
With gestures, getting around your iPhone gets a lot easier. With just your finger making short spans on your screen you can open the control center, switch between apps seamlessly, open the multitask panel, view your notifications and lot’s more.
How To Fix iPhone Gestures Not Working
For some reasons, mostly software issues, swiping up or trying to make any gesture may refuse to work properly on your iPhone. You may also notice that a particular swipe may be working this minute and the next minute may refuse to properly function.
In this case the solution you need to effect to have everything working fine again is a hard reset. Follow the below steps to hard reset your iPhone;
- Hold down the power button and volume down button at the same time
- The power off slider will appear on the screen
- Slide the power icon to power off
- Turn it on again and try to swipe on your lock screen to see if that fixed it.
- You may need to go over this process a couple times before the problem will be fixed.
If this troubleshooting step is tried over again without fixing the gesture issue, then you may need to change the iPhone digitizer. Have your iPhone looked up by a repair expert to determine if you need a new screen.
Conclusion
Everyone loves easy navigation and most persons are willing to do anything to have it working on their older iPhones. As has been stated in this article, the only way out is to jailbreak your iPhone. In my opinion, it’s a risky path to take, although over 70% of jailbreaks on iPhone eventually turns out successful, that doesn’t still make it any less harmful. Only jail break at your own risk,
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