The XinaA15 jailbreak by Zhu Xinlang (@xina520) for arm64e (A12+) devices running iOS and iPadOS 15.0-15.1.1 has been available as a beta since early December 2022. It went public after an internal beta was leaked, prompting Xinlang to put both hands up in the air and just start giving away public betas instead of trying to keep it a secret.
Since then, XinaA15 has received many updates improving jailbreak stability and trying to make it more compatible with popular jailbreak packages. But as developer Lars Fröder (@opa334) continues to make amazing progress with Fugu15 Max (the working title of a jailbreak based on Linus Henze’s Fugu15 jailbreak for arm64e devices running iOS and iPadOS 15.0-15.4.1), the need for a second jailbreak tool in the form of XinaA15 seems increasingly unnecessary, especially with all the caveats enii.
The above truth has not gone unnoticed. An announcement posted on the XinaA15 Discord server this Friday afternoon talked about speculation that Xinlang might stop the development of XinaA15 on the grounds that Fugu15 Max is developing faster.
Loosely translated, this assumption took the form of the passage quoted below:
Upon learning that the Fugu15 Max jailbreak has become widespread, Zhu Xinlang, the developer of the XinaA15 jailbreak, notified the internal testing team that everyone should upgrade to Fugu15! … I may no longer update it. Fugu15 is progressing well and I don’t think there is a need for another one.
The quote allegedly comes from the owner of @HUC_hbs, a Twitter account known for announcing previous XinaA15 jailbreak updates and sharing download links via Twitter. Not much is known about this account, except that it is followed by several high-profile members of the jailbreak community. This account’s bio reads: “Mysterious team dealing with jailbreak tools to ensure effective signature installation.”
So what does all this mean? The announcement on the XinaA15 Discord channel is clear: Because XinaA15 may not receive further updates, existing XinaA15 users are encouraged to continue using it until Fugu15 Max is finalized and officially out of public beta and upgraded to public version status. XinaA15 is currently more stable than the Fugu15 Max public beta, but Fugu15 Max is expected to become more stable over time.
Once this happens, users should consider switching to the public version of Fugu15 Max, which will likely be called differently at the time of release.
Another benefit of Fugu15 Max worth mentioning is that it supports iOS and iPadOS 15.0-15.4.1 on arm6e devices, compared to only iOS and iPadOS 15.0-15.1.1 on arm64e devices supported by XinaA15. This means that the Fugu15 Max has the potential to reach and be useful to more people, which likely contributed to Xinlang’s tough decision to back off after months of progress.
As for the XinaA15 Discord server, it’s not going anywhere at the moment. The admins have stated that the server will remain active for user use and discussion for at least another month before the team decides whether to rename the server to something else. As the situation evolves, more will be revealed in the coming weeks.
While absolutely none of this has been publicly confirmed by Xinlang themselves, it’s not too surprising given the fact that Xinlang usually remains silent even when releasing updates to XinaA15. In many cases, these updates were released without changelogs, so users couldn’t find out what was new until someone shared them.
It will be interesting to see what happens, especially against the backdrop of this evolving situation. Interested users can stay in the know by joining the XinaA15 Discord server and subscribing to iDB as we monitor future XinaA15 status updates.
Do you plan to continue using XinaA15 or will you eventually upgrade to Fugu15 Max for your iOS device or iPadOS 15.0-15.4.1 arm64e (A12+)? Let us know in the comments section below.