Cydia Tweak: How To Configure A Touch ID Grace Period For Your iPhone 5s

One of the downsides to Touch ID is that when enabled, users lose access to a “grace period” for iOS unlocks. This means you’ll need to re-scan your finger or re-enter a passcode every single time you unlock your iOS device, even if it was last unlocked a mere 30 seconds ago. Fortunately, however, one new jailbreak tweak can fix this annoying problem.

The new package we’re talking about is Mesalation, and once installed iPhone 5s owners can have the jailbreak tweak enable a grace period for the iOS unlock system, even when Touch ID is activated and running. You’ll be able to do this from the built-in Settings application, inside of the “Touch ID & Passcode” preferences pane; grace period options on offer include an immediate Touch ID or passcode request, a request after one minute, after five minutes, after 15 minutes, after one hour, and after four hours.

It’s a simple but effective jailbreak tweak, and one that does exactly what it promises to do. Best of all, Mesalation works with both Touch ID and passcode lock, meaning your grace period will be enabled even if you’ve unlocked your iPhone 5s using Apple’s fingerprint-scanning Home button (rather than the conventional passcode).

Besides Mesalation, there are a couple of alternatives available in the Cydia Store, and PassTime, in particular, offers users the option of setting a more precise grace period for passcode lock, rather than the stipulated intervals cited above.

If you’re not so bothered about this more advanced functionality, however, Mesalation is available to download in the Cydia Store free of charge; it’s optimized for iOS 7 and for ARM64-iDevices.

Check out the new jailbreak tweak now, or for more of our recent news, see: Major Pebble Update Arrives With An Appstore For The Smart Watch, Op-Ed: Why I’m Turning My Beats Music Trial Into A Paid Subscription, and Facebook’s Paper Launches In The App Store, Brings A More Elegant News Feed To iOS.