Unlocking Your iPhone With Gestures Instead of a Passcode.

By Robert A.M., 10 March, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi all,

I recently came across a jailbreak tweak that allows you to unlock your iPhone using gestures instead of having to enter a passcode. The name of the tweak is "Stride", basically you can use it to draw a shape on your lock screen to unlock it. The tweak, however, costs $2.99; before purchasing it I was wondering if anyone here has used it before and if it is VoiceOver compatible? I know I could pirate it from an alternative repository, but I want to avoid doing that if I can.

If this tweak works well with VoiceOver, it sounds like it would greatly benefit the visually impaired community, since drawing a shape would definitely be faster than entering a passcode!

Regards.

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Comments

By KE7ZUM on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

lol. I can enter in my pass code with speach off in about 3 or 4 seconds. I cannot how ever draw to save muy life. so that woudl not work for me, but to each his or her own. Tc.
I have never used that app before but I have heard of activater it is also another tweek to the iPhone.

By Dave Nason on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Isaac Hebert (not verified)

I'd be interested to hear more about this, so if anyone has tried it please do let us know. Thinking about it though, it doesn't sound as secure as a passcode to me. I mean if you're going to draw a square, a circle or a triangle, that doesn't seem too hard for someone to guess. I'm just thinking out loud here :)

By Robert A.M. on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

Hey everyone, Marrie: LOL, well, the shape doesn't have to be too complicated, surely you could easily draw something like an "O", an "L" or an "X", and that would definitely take less than 3 or 4 seconds! Isaac, yes, Activator is a very helpful jailbreak tweak, you can use it to set up a gesture to replace double tapping the "slide to unlock" control, but you would still have to enter your passcode afterwards. Dave: sure, it might be a little less safe, but the beauty of it is that a thief would probably never guess that you have this tweak installed, so he wouldn't start drawing shapes on the screen in the first place! Regards!

By Musicruz on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

Stride is working as it is advertised, however, Using this along with the Voice Over is not fizzleble because as you guys know, Voice Over allows us to touch and explore the screen without doing any action on the phone. That's why we got to double tap the screen, so the iPhone would recognize that we want to perform an action on the phone. Therefore, when you are on the lock screen, you have to turn the Voice Over off in order for the phone to recognize whatever drawing you had drawn. This kind of tweak is mainly designed with the sighted people in mind, so more likely this is not going to work with the Voice Over on, unless the developer would consider to implement the direct touch like the one Fleksy has. Again, Stride works fine with the Voice Over off, but when you think about it how much hassle to turn Voice Over on/off just to unlock your phone. I don't put any pass codes on my phone, but if I would have to do it, I would rather to use the built-in pass code security of the phone. regards, Musicruz

By Dave Nason on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Musicruz

Thanks Musicruz, I won't be buying this then. I had thought it might work with VoiceOver, as some other gesture based tweaks such as Zephyr for example, and Mountain Centre on iPad, work the same regardless of whether VoiceOver is on or not. So good to know. If you find the pass code a little annoying but still want the security, I'd strongly recommend CleverPIN. It lets you by-pass the pass code when you are connected to your home wi-fi network for example, but when you leave the house the pass code will automatically kick in. It's one of my favourite tweaks.

By Robert A.M. on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

In reply to by Musicruz

Thanks Musicruz, very helpful as always! Yeap, I agree with Dave, if the tweak does not work with VO enabled then it is pointless. I might email the developer and ask him to consider making it accessible, for now, Dave's suggestion of using CleverPIN sounds interesting! Regards!

By Morten on Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 05:08

Hi. Sure, cleverpin is cool, however, the last time I used it, which was about a month ago, it had a bug where when you leave the trusted wi-fi, first time you unlocked the phone, it wouldn't ask for the passcode, but just, well, unlock. lol. The tweak I use, which is verry similar to Cleverpin, is called AutoProtect. I believe it has the same features as cleverpin, if not then please correct me. HTH, Morten