Cydia facts for kids
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Screenshot
A screenshot of Cydia on an iPhone XS Max running iOS 14.8
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| Developer(s) | Jay Freeman (saurik) |
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| Initial release | February 28, 2008 |
| Stable release |
1.1.36 / June 24, 2020
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| Operating system | iOS, iPadOS |
| Available in | English, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Greek, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Polish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Russian etc. |
| Type | Package manager |
| License | GPLv3 |
Cydia is like a special app store for iOS devices such as iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. It lets people find and install software that isn't available in Apple's official App Store. This is possible on devices that have been "jailbroken."
Most of the software you can find on Cydia is free. However, some apps or tools might cost money to buy. Cydia was created by Jay Freeman, who is also known as "saurik," and his company, SaurikIT. The name "Cydia" comes from a type of moth, the Cydia moth. This moth is known for eating fruits like apples.
Contents
What Cydia Does
Cydia gives you a visual way (a graphical user interface or GUI) to manage apps on a jailbroken device. It uses something called Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) to get software from special online places called "repositories." These are like different libraries of apps.
You can download apps from these repositories. The apps are installed in the same place as Apple's own apps. Even with Cydia, jailbroken devices can still buy and download apps from the official App Store. Some tools that help you jailbreak your device will install Cydia automatically.
Types of Software on Cydia
Some things you find on Cydia are regular apps. But many are special tools that change how your iOS device looks or works. They can also add new features to other apps. Some Cydia repositories offer free software, while others have paid tools for jailbroken devices. These special tools often use a framework called Cydia Substrate.
Cydia also has many command-line tools that usually run on POSIX-compatible systems. These include tools like bash and OpenSSH. This means your device could act like a small computer workstation.
Cydia Store (No Longer Available)
Back in March 2009, Cydia launched its own store where users could buy software. At first, you could only pay with Amazon payments, but later PayPal was added. Cydia stopped using Amazon Payments in 2015, so PayPal became the only way to pay.
However, after a problem with PayPal's payment system was found, Jay Freeman decided to close the Cydia Store. It officially shut down on December 16, 2018.
Staying Safe with Cydia
Using Cydia and jailbreaking has both good and bad sides. Some people say that the tools from Cydia can actually make your device more secure. However, installing software from places you don't trust can sometimes lead to problems. This could include losing your data or getting harmful software (malware).
Cydia Substrate, a tool often installed with Cydia, helps keep things safe. If an installed app causes your device's main screen (called SpringBoard) to crash, Cydia Substrate will restart it. It will also temporarily turn off any third-party apps to help you find the problem.
Cydia's Journey
Jay Freeman first released Cydia in February 2008. It was an open-source option to another app called Installer.app, which was used on early iPhone OS versions.
In August 2009, a magazine called Wired reported that about 4 million people had installed Cydia. This was about 10% of all iPhone and iPod Touch owners at that time.
In September 2010, SaurikIT, Jay Freeman's company, bought another big app provider called Rock Your Phone, Inc. This made SaurikIT the largest provider of third-party apps.
In early 2013, Cydia had a problem where some saved data for users' devices was damaged. This data was important for older iOS versions.
On December 24, 2013, Cydia was updated to work with iOS 7 and iOS 7.1. Later, on October 22, 2014, a team called Pangu Team released a jailbreak for iOS 8. Saurik quickly updated Cydia to support iOS 8 as well.
In February 2018, a developer named CoolStar released a jailbreak for iOS 11. This jailbreak included a version of Cydia that worked with it. Jay Freeman later released his own update for Cydia that also worked with iOS 11.
See also
In Spanish: Cydia (aplicación) para niños
- Linux on Apple devices
