Can I use transparency in the iPhone app icon?

Question

I created a 57X57 circle icon (no gloss) that has transparency outside the round shape for my application. I can successfully install the application on Simulator and iPhone. It works great and looks great.

However, I can present the Apple icon with transparency. Will they accept it? I can’t find applications that have transparency in their icon ... instead, they use a kind of pseudo-transparency - a black ink-free background without glitter.

Answer 1

Apple may have updated the interface guidelines since this question was asked, but transparency is now clearly not allowed. More details here: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/IconsImages/IconsImages.html

Answer 2

When I try to prepare an application update in iTunes Connect today, I loaded 1 layer of 1024x1024 PNG in 8bit / channel RGB mode. I got an error message:

"Images cannot contain alpha channels or transparencies.":

This is the rule for the App Store back in 2015/01/22. I include a screenshot.

Answer 3

I reviewed this for a client who would like a circular transparent badge to match his company logo. Here is what I found:

The iTunes 512x512 icon is loaded in JPEG or TIFF format, which does not support transparency, so you have to make a square background for your circle. Since the home screen icon should look exactly like a large icon, your home screen icon should also have the same background.

As Brandon suggests , you could use a pre-selected icon with a black background, but you would be dominated by App Store reviewers. The docs say that the icon for your home screen should be a “smooth, square icon sized 57x57 pixels” (my emphasis). You can leave with a circular icon with a black background, but it really depends on how the reviewer checks this requirement. You can leave it if they haven’t checked, or just check that the alpha channel is 100% for life, but it won’t be if they decide whether the icon will look square.

The circular icon will look strange next to all the other icons on users' phones, so this is probably a bad idea.

Answer 4

For the application, you can use your transparent PNG as an icon. When you upload to the itunes store, they require .jpg, which of course does not have transparency.

As for if they accept your application with an icon of a non-standard form, maybe not. He can approve it once, and then reject the update, this will probably depend on whether they pay attention and notice the icon or not.

Answer 5

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

Otherwise, it will look shiny on users phone.

Answer 6

Yes, you can. Many of my icon apps contain an alpha channel, approved (I'm lazy or forgot to delete the alpha channels). But you should not use transparent pixels in the icons.