Cydia lovers and iPhone hackers are still eagerly awaiting a working iOS 9.3 jailbreak, but recent history shows that legitimate, working jailbreaks have been harder to come by since Apple released iOS 9.

Now as Apple continues to incrementally test betas and update iOS 9.3, Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2016) is coming very soon -- and with it, the likely unveiling of the next generation iPhone operating system, iOS 10.

Jailbreaking Over?

Should jailbreakers just give up on the idea of hacking their iPhones? Is it even relevant anymore?

That's the question facing jailbreakers now as the last solid jailbreak happened way back in October 2015, as 9to5Mac recently noted. Of course, the jailbreak cycle can be cyclical, and a dearth of publicly available, working jailbreaks are normal, especially as we head into a season promising an entirely new version of iOS.

Pangu and others have to wonder, "Why waste the time jailbreaking iOS 9.3.x if we're about to start again with iOS 10?"

Alternatives

But there's also a reason for jailbreakers to wonder if the pursuit of a fully hacked, customizable iPhone is a useless pursuit. Especially since sideloading apps you can't get in the iTunes App Store -- using tools like Extensify and ppsideloader -- is now a useable alternative to completely hacking iOS so you can run Cydia.

Diehards will always say that sideloading is a limited alternative to a jailbreak, but the fact is that iOS 9.0 through iOS 9.1 remain the only recent versions of Apple's mobile operating system with legitimate options for a jailbreak.

And since many have already updated past iOS 9.1, the weaker alternative of sideloading may be the only one -- for now, at least. To be clear, there are a lot of advertised jailbreaks for iOS 9.2 through iOS 9.3.2, but they don't work, and some are pretty shady.