Is it possible to use transparency in an iPhone app icon?

Question

I created a 57×57 circular icon (without shine) which has transparency outside of the circle for my app. I can successfully install the app on Simulator and iPhone. It works fine, and looks great.

However, can I submit an icon with transparency to Apple? Will they accept it? I can't find any apps which have transparency in their icon. Instead, they use a kind of pseudo-transparency - a jet black background with no shine.

Solution 1

Apple may have updated the interface guidelines since this question was asked, but transparency is now expressly not allowed. See more here:
https://developer.apple.com/ios/human-interface-guidelines/icons-and-images/app-icon/

Solution 2

When trying to prepare an app update in iTunes Connect today I uploaded a 1 layer 1024x1024 PNG in RGB 8bits/channel color mode. I got an error message stating:

"Images can’t contain alpha channels or transparencies.":

That's the rule for the App Store as recently as 2015/01/22. I'm including a screenshot.

Solution 3

I've looked into this for a client who would like a circular transparent icon to match his company's logo. Here's what I've found:

The 512x512 iTunes icon is uploading in JPEG or TIFF format, which don't support transparency, so you'd have to make up a square background for your circle. Since the home screen icon is supposed to look exactly like the large icon, your home screen icon will also have to have the same background.

As brandon suggests you could use a pre-rendered icon with a black background, but you'd be at the mercy of the App Store reviewers. The docs say your home screen icon must be a "flattened, square-image icon that is 57x57 pixels" (my emphasis). You might get away with a circular icon with a black background, but it really depends on how the reviewer tests that requirement. You might get away with it if they don't check, or only check that the alpha channel is 100% everywhere, but won't if they decide based on whether the icon looks square.

A circular icon will look odd next to all the other icons on the users' phones, so it's probably a bad idea anyway.

Solution 4

For the app, you can use your transparent PNG as the icon. When you upload to the itunes store, they require a .jpg which of course has no transparency.

As for if they will accept your app with a substandard shaped icon, maybe, maybe not. The could approve it one time and then reject an upgrade, it will probably depend if they are paying attention and notice the icon or not.

Solution 5

Make all of your transparent areas black. Then add a UIPrerenderedIcon key with a value of "YES" to your applications Info.plist.

Otherwise it will appear shiny on the users phone.

View more solutions

Comments

[Duncan Babbage]

I don't know what was the case in 2010, but it isn't accurate to say it is expressly not allowed. The Apple guidelines say, "Avoid transparency. An app icon should be opaque." If they were expressly not allowed, they would say "An app icon must be opaque", or "Transparency is not allowed in app icons", or "If you include transparency in your app icon, a black background will be applied to the icon." None are said, but the third happens. developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience‌​/…

[Bruno Bronosky]

NOTE: This also applies to PNGs with a single layer which is not marked as a background layer. In Photoshop you will need to choose Layer > Flatten Image

[Bruno Bronosky]

@DuncanBabbage It is "expressly not allowed" when you try to upload the image. See the screenshot in my answer. stackoverflow.com/a/28096999/117471 Regardless of the poor word choice in their guidelines, if the image gets rejected, it's forbidden, not discouraged. (In all fairness, this may be new behavior since your comment in 2014.) I'm just trying be complete, not a jerk.

[Jonny]

Old link there!

[Rakesh Kumar]

flatten image make transparent icon white background