It is widely expected that Apple will release iOS 7 at their September 10th event, along with the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, but as with any Apple rumour, it’s not necessarily for definite.
However, recently Apple began issuing a block on AppleCare vacations, which is expected to be because Apple want to ensure they have full support for the iOS 7 release, which is a big change visually from the previous version of iOS. Together witht his, Apple has just begun to email developers asking them to submit new icons for iOS 7 – another sign the impending release is very close.
iOS 7 icon design change
It’s not just because Apple has changed the design of iOS 7 so expect developers to adapt their icons to use the new design look, but it’s also because the icons in iOS 7 are actually slighter larger.
As you can see in the image above, Netflix has yet to optimise their App for iOS 7 and as such there is a small white border compared to those optimised for iOS 7. In iOS 6 these icons had a dimension of 114 x 114, but in iOS 7 the dimension increased to 120 x 120. As for the iPad, iOS 6 icons were previously at 144 x 144, but in iOS 7 they are 152 x 152.
The requirements for iOS 7 has been set out as follows:
Invalid Image – For iOS applications, icons included in the binary submission must be in the PNG format.
- If your application supports the iPhone device family, you must include square icons of the following dimensions: 57×57 pixels and 120×120 pixels.
- If your application supports the iPad device family, you must include square icons of the following dimensions: 72×72 pixels, 76×76 pixels and 152×152 pixels
Apple has also altered the radius of the icons in iOS 7, so it’s a further reason developers need to optimise their icons.
iOS 7 is expected to launch on September 10th, and with Apple prepping developers to optimise their icons, it appears iOS 7 isn’t too far away.