iOS App Icon Sizes and Requirements

The short answer

For a modern iOS app you need one square 1024×1024 pixel PNG with no transparency and no rounded corners. Xcode generates every smaller size from it, and the system applies the corner mask. Since iOS 18 you can also supply optional dark and tinted versions, and since iOS 26 Apple's Icon Composer lets you build a layered icon that picks up the new Liquid Glass look.

Everything else in this guide explains when you need more than that single file, and how to avoid the mistakes that get builds rejected.

The single 1024×1024 icon

Since Xcode 14, an app icon in an asset catalog can be set to Single Size. You provide one 1024×1024 image and Xcode scales it down for the home screen, Spotlight, Settings and notifications when it builds your app. This is now the default for new projects, and it is what most apps should use.

Your 1024 image must be:

• Exactly 1024×1024 pixels, square.
• Fully opaque — no alpha channel. App Store Connect rejects marketing icons with transparency.
• Unrounded — a full square. iOS applies its own continuous-corner mask; if you round the corners yourself you get a thin halo of background at the edges.
• sRGB or Display P3 PNG. Avoid unusual color profiles that can shift colors after upload.

The classic size set (and when you still need it)

Before Xcode 14, every size had to be supplied separately. You may still want the full set if you support older Xcode versions in a CI pipeline, use a cross-platform framework whose template expects it, or want to hand-tune small sizes — for example simplifying a detailed icon so it stays readable at 29 points.

The AppNimbus app icon generator exports this full set together with a ready Contents.json, so you can drop the AppIcon.appiconset folder straight into Assets.xcassets.

Dark, tinted and clear appearances

iOS 18 introduced home screen customization: users can switch icons to a dark style or a tinted style that recolors every icon. iOS 26 added clear variants as part of Liquid Glass. If you don't supply your own variants, iOS generates them automatically from your standard icon — and automatic versions of busy or light-background icons often look muddy.

In an asset catalog you can add the extra appearances to the icon set:

• Dark: usually your foreground artwork on a transparent or very dark background. This is the one variant where the background may be transparent — the system draws its own dark backdrop.
• Tinted: a grayscale version of your artwork. The system applies the user's chosen tint color to it, so contrast matters more than color.

Test all of them. A logo that relies on a colored background to be visible can vanish in dark mode.

Icon Composer and Liquid Glass

With iOS 26 and the other version-26 operating systems, Apple introduced Liquid Glass, a design language where icons have depth, specular highlights and translucency. To make icons for it, Apple released Icon Composer, a free design app that produces a single .icon file you add to your Xcode project.

Key points from Apple's guidance:

• You design on a 1024×1024 canvas (watchOS uses a slightly larger canvas to allow for the circular mask) and export flat, opaque layers from your design tool — typically a background and one or more foreground layers.
• Icon Composer applies the glass effects — blur, shadow, specular highlights, translucency — so you shouldn't bake those into your artwork.
• One .icon file covers iOS, iPadOS, macOS and watchOS and their default, dark and mono (clear and tinted) appearances.
• Icon Composer is optional. A classic flat image still works; the system still rounds it and applies some glass treatment.

Also note that since April 28, 2026, apps uploaded to App Store Connect must be built with Xcode 26 or later and the iOS 26 SDK, so every update now ships into the Liquid Glass world whether you redesign your icon or not. It's worth checking how your existing icon looks on an iOS 26 device.

Why App Store Connect rejects icons

• Transparency in the 1024 icon. Flatten it onto a solid background color.
• Wrong dimensions — for example a 1000×1000 export or a non-square image.
• Missing icon because the asset catalog's App Icon set name doesn't match the build setting.
• Icon doesn't match the app or imitates another brand. Guideline 4.1 (copycats) covers icons too.
• Misleading badges such as a fake notification count or "Free" banner.

Design tips that hold up at 29 points

• One focal shape. At Settings size you get roughly 29×29 points. Detailed illustrations become noise.
• Avoid text beyond a single letter. Your app name is already printed under the icon.
• Strong contrast between symbol and background, and enough contrast with both light and dark wallpapers.
• Keep important detail away from the corners, which are masked.
• Look at it next to other apps. The app icon tester shows your icon on a home screen, in App Store search results and at real point sizes, with a blur "squint test".

Sources: Apple Human Interface Guidelines (App icons), Apple Developer "Upcoming requirements", WWDC25 session "Create icons with Icon Composer". Last checked October 2026.