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I saw clock app in iOS 7. Its app icon shows time on the icon itself. User don't even have to peep inside the icon to see the time. How to achieve this ?

parilogic
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    I wish it could be possible – AtWork Oct 03 '13 at 07:42
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about icon creation. This question seems suitable for http://ux.stackexchange.com/ – Amar Oct 03 '13 at 07:44
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    @Amar: It's about what APIs to use to create a live icon, which is more of a programming question than a UX one, IMO. – AbdullahC Oct 03 '13 at 09:39
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    This question should not have been closed. Updating the icon and creating the icon are completely different things; and just because it's impossible, doesn't invalidate the question. In Android for example it is possible using a widget. – beetstra Dec 05 '13 at 10:49
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    @Amar : This question is not off-topic and neither related to UI. Please understand the question as it implies core iOS developement. – parilogic Dec 05 '13 at 12:35
  • possible duplicate of [How to animate application icon in iOS?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19361654/how-to-animate-application-icon-in-ios) – Kutyel May 22 '15 at 07:40

3 Answers3

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Apple always had some cool private APIs which we developers aren't allowed to use in production Apps, the animated App-Icon is one of them. Most of the time it's to save the experience for the user. Imagine every App uses an auto-updating Icon. The battery-life would go down and it would be a mess on the homescreen when everything is moving and blinking.

mhaddl
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  • However, nothing prevents them from defining a strict policy of using this API and then just reject apps with unuseful blinking icons, leaving the feature for applications where it really wanted and needed. In fact, they already go similar way all the time with their HIG. – Cemen Sep 04 '14 at 04:20
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I think there is no way for developers to use this with Apple Public API as what i think you leave the home screen with moving icons on all the time as This kind of thing may kills batteries very fast as Moving clock icon needs to update every second. I really wish they'd implement this for us to use with nice way.

Buntylm
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    Not to be "that" guy, but `batteries`?? come on guy, android has been doing it for ever. The simple fact is that as with everything Apple related, it is fraught with constraints, for controls. – vvMINOvv Feb 09 '14 at 18:04
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I don't think this is possible for 3rd party developers, even in iOS 7.

Duncan Lowrie
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