With this app you can change the font on iOS 16 without jailbreaking your iPhone

Apple’s iOS is notorious for its lack of flexibility and customization options. Unlike Android, iOS locks down multiple features to give users a consistent experience. While this results in consistent performance, it leaves little room for personalization. Now a software developer has created an app that allows Apple users to change their iOS system font without jailbreaking their iPhone. The app works on iOS 16.1.2 and lower non-jailbroken devices and includes nine different fonts to experiment with, with more being added over time.

Developer Zhuowei Zhang (@zhuowei) sent shared the link to his app on Twitter on December 26th and has since added more fonts. The proof-of-concept app overrides the default iOS System Font – San Francisco – using security exploit CVE-2022-46689. According to Zhang, the font substitution is only temporary and all changes are reverted after a reboot. However, he advised users to backup their device before using the app.

Also, the exploit only affects specific text in iOS and is not system-wide. So far, Zhang has posted screenshots of iPhone settings menu, apple music app that app store, Messages, Contacts and the Weather app with text in new fonts. Fonts in the app include DejaVu Sans Condensed, DejaVu Serif, DejaVu Sans Mono, Go Regular, Go Mono, Fira Sans, Segoe UI, Comic Sans MS, and Choco Cooky.

Zhang has invited other developers to continue using his code GitHub and add more fonts to the app if you like. He published the final version of WDBFontOverwrite on Thursday, which also allows users to import custom fonts that have been ported to iOS. The app is not available for iOS 16.2 as the latest update fixed the vulnerability exploiting Zhang’s app.

Apple does not allow users to change fonts or themes by default on their iOS devices. However, the same can continue to happen officially Android Devices by going to Settings. Apple has added some customization options in recent years by introducing widgets on the home screen, but lags far behind Android when it comes to personalization options available to users.