Daily Tip: How to make your iPhone camera launch instantly [Jailbreak]

Wondering how to make your iPhone camera launch faster? Often find that you've missed the perfect shot because the camera app took too long to open? It turns out there's a way to instantly call up the iPhone camera without any load time at all using a lightweight jailbreak tweak called Snappy -- hit the jump to find out how it's done!

Snappy is a jailbreak modification that lets you do a few different things with the Camera app, but its main function is having the camera available no matter what app you're in -- you can even use the camera instantly from the iPhone lockscreen!

(If you're not sure what Jailbreak is, then check out our jailbreak starts guide first.)

To get started, go into Cydia and search for Snappy. The app uses the Cydia Store and costs $1.99 to purchase.

After you've installed Snappy, Cydia will prompt you to respring before the modification can take effect. After that you should see the Snappy icon on your springboard, but I use SbSettings to remove the icon from my iPhone altogether. Snappy uses Activator gestures so you won't really need the icon once you've set it all up.

Once Snappy is ready to go, follow these quick steps to get Activator set to your needs:

  1. Go into the Settings app and scroll down until you see an option for Activator.

  1. In the Activator menu pane, select 'Anywhere'.

  1. From here you'll see a number of options including gestures, button presses and tap commands. We're going to set Snappy to activate whenever you tap and hold anywhere along the statusbar, but you can choose whatever gesture you prefer.

  1. To quickly find Snappy just swipe up to reveal a search bar, run a quick search and then choose whether to default to photo or video taking once Snappy is activated.

  1. Now close out of the settings app completely (tap once to go to homescreen, double-tap to call up the app switcher then tap and hold the settings icon until it starts to wiggle to kill the app).

  1. Enjoy instant access to the camera from anywhere on your iPhone!

That's it! No more waiting around for the Camera app to load and no more missing those perfect shots while on the go!

Bonus Tip: Snappy has a few other nice features including the ability to set the volume buttons as the camera shutter, making it even more convenient to take photos on your iPhone. To do this, activate Snappy and make sure the option for 'Volume shutter button' is on under settings. You can also set Snappy to use your current location or snap a quick photo upon launch.

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Andrew Wray is a Salt Lake City, Utah based writer who focuses on news, how-tos, and jailbreak. Andrew also enjoys running, spending time with his daughter, and jamming out on his guitar. He works in a management position for Unisys Technical Services, a subsidiary of Unisys Corporation.