iOS 6 vs iOS 7: Icons

Apple’s newest firmware, iOS 7, has a lot of new features. The first thing we are going to look at in detail are the new icon designs and compare them to the old ones from iOS 6.

Here is a look at the first screen of icons, which does not include all the apps that come stock on the iPhone with iOS 7. The Calculator and Contacts icons are no longer on the front screen in iOS 7. There is also a FaceTime app now on my iPhone which is no longer built inside of the Phone app but instead is a stand alone app. I’ve added iOS 6 icons from an iPhone 4S on the right for comparison.

The best icon for me is the clock icon because it now moves live with the current time. Finally. No more Liveclock hack needed. Now they just need to get the weather icon to animate! A few of the icons like Photos and Game Center are a little broad, they do not seem to relate to the app. Other apps like Messages, Videos, App Store and a few others haven’t changed or just had a color tweak. I think my least favorite icon is the Settings icon. It’s just ugly.

One icon missing in the new group is the Voice Memo app. Apple says it’s a known problem with iOS beta 1 and a leaked image from the WWDC shows what the icon looks like.

Rumors are that Jonny Ive had the marketing team design the look of iOS 7 without sharing with the engineers of the software to force a fresh look to the design. Overall, its a nice change to a very stagnant design that was used for 6 years.