Reveal: View Longer Messages Inside Banner And Lock Screen Notifications [Jailbreak]

By

More text in the same notification
More text in the same notification

The iOS 5 Notification Center displays incoming messages in a couple of ways. When you have an iOS device unlocked, a new message can be shown via a small banner notification at the top of the screen. A regular alert can be displayed for certain apps, and incoming notifications are also pushed to the iOS lock screen when a device is locked. The system works well, but Apple restricts the amount of text you can see in a given notification. If you want to read an entire message that’s more than a sentence or two, you have to open the associated app.

The jailbreak community has improved the way Notification Center handles longer messages. A new Cydia tweak called Reveal lets you view long chunks of text from a banner or lock screen notification.

Developed by Joshua Tucker and Conrad Kramer, Reveal is a slick tweak that extends iOS functionality in a way that Apple could have implemented. There are no settings to configure, as Reveal integrates seamlessly into Notification Center.

Have you ever gotten a banner notification and been frustrated that you can’t see the entire chunk of text? If, say, a Twitter message comes in, you can typically just see the @ username followed by the first couple words. With Reveal installed, you can scroll from right to left on the banner notification to read the whole thing.

The same goes for the lock screen. Longer messages can now be read entirely by scrolling inside the notification bubble. The list view for notifications on the lock screen will also show you longer messages. Just tap on the notification to view the entire body of text.

Here’s a video of Reveal in action:

Reveal is available now in Cydia for $2.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.