I’m having a bit of trouble uploading my new icon to the App Store Connect. I created it entirely with Icon Composer, but it keeps throwing an error saying it’s an “Invalid large app icon.” The error message says that the large app icon in the asset catalog can’t be transparent or have an alpha channel. I only have one AppIcon in the asset catalog, and I’ve checked the “single size” option, which is set to 1024x1024 for any, dark, or tinted size. In the past, when I used the previous icon with the iOS 18 SDK, I didn’t have any issues uploading it. However, when I created the new icon with Icon Composer and compiled it with Xcode Beta, it broke. I’m a bit confused because the error message suggests that removing transparency is the solution, but the whole point of Icon Composer is to make the icon transparent for the new liquid glass design. I don’t want to remove the cool look that my new transparent icon has. Could you please help me out? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch!

As of right now Icon Composer does not support creating app icons for visionOS and tvOS. It appears that only system apps can provide glass icons for those platforms. How should developers handle this? In extreme cases, the flat icon on those platforms will look wildly different from their glass counterparts. From what I have seen visionOS and tvOS also do not apply any automatic treatment like on iOS where legacy icons get a glass effect. So, third party app icons are just going to look out of place for (hopefully just) a year on those platforms? What is the recommended approach here? You could obviously fake the effect, but I feel like that would be worse.

After updating from iOS 18 to iOS 26, our app icon appears to have automatically received the new 'Liquid Glass' effect. We confirmed that this change occurred without us releasing a new app update. My questions are: Is this a system behavior where iOS 26 automatically applies the new icon style to existing apps? If so, is it possible for a developer to control or customize this effect? I am also wondering if there are any methods other than using Icon Composer.

Hi, I'm updating my iPhone app (iPhone only) to be ready with iOS 26. I'm building my app using Xcode 26.0 beta 6 (17A5305f) and testing it on an iPad running iPadOS 26 (23A5326a). I found an issue with my new app icon updated using Icon Composer and I was able to find the issue. An iPhone only app running on iPadOS 26 doesn't use the provided app icon. It always displays the "standard" light icon. I just added iPad in Supported Destinations and the app icon now respect light/dark/translucent/tinted modes on the Home Screen. I submitted feedback FB19768667

Hi Guys, I noticed that with Icon Composer when you export the icon it does not export a square image, is there any way of doing it or that's how it is now? Checking the icon on the iPhone something doesn't seem right...

Is there a way to display a .icon file in SwiftUI? I want to show the app icon in the app itself but exporting and including the app icon as a PNG feels redundant. This would consume a lot of unnecessary storage especially when including a lot of alternative app icons. There has to be a better way Otherwise I would file a feedback for that Thank you

I've filed a FB already through standard channels (FB ID: FB19032008) but I'll post it here in case it may get some attention from others experiencing similar issues. On macOS 26 Beta 5 and Xcode 26 Beta 5 (and earlier revisions afaik) Icon Composer specifies a minimum window size that greatly exceeds the bounds of the 1280x800/832pt video modes available on 13in MacBooks, and which also is too large for the default 1440x900 video mode on non-notched 13in MacBook Air/Pro models as this causes a default-size 64pt dock to occlude the window. I've attached screenshots depicting this behaviour in the two above described cases. Best solution seems like reducing min window size to something that will fit reasonably in a 1280x800pt viewport including the dock and menu bar (e.g. 1000x600 or something).

I have been battling the new Icon Composer app for 2 days trying to build an app icon. However, I cannot get it to import any files. I have used the Apple provided App Icon Template. I have exported my layers to .svg and when I open the finder, everything is disabled. I can't find help for this anywhere. I am on Sequoia on my Mac and not sure how to design this app icon without access to the composer.

Hi everyone 👋 I’m a new iOS developer working on my first app and I’ve run into a frustrating visual bug involving my app icon during the launch/close transition. Issue: When I use Icon Composer (the new tool introduced for iOS 26) to generate my app icon, I consistently see a thin white border or “fringe” around the icon only during the transition animation (when the app opens or closes). It disappears once the animation ends. What I tested and confirmed: • I exported the exact same design directly from Adobe Illustrator as a 1024×1024 PNG, fully opaque, RGB color mode, background color filling the entire canvas (no transparency, no borders, no rounded corners). • When I place that exported PNG directly into the AppIcon asset catalog in Xcode, the icon renders perfectly — no white fringe appears, just a slightly darker shade of blue during transitions (expected and acceptable). • But when I generate the icon using Icon Composer, the white edge always appears, even if I disable effects, use full coverage layers, or only keep a flat color layer. Notes: • Tested on iOS 26 (latest beta) using Xcode 16. • The issue seems specific to Icon Composer’s export format or metadata — maybe it’s not stripping alpha correctly or something related to the squircle mask? • I followed all recommended specs: 1024×1024 px, PNG, sRGB, no transparency, exported from Illustrator at 72ppi with solid background. Even tested without the logo, just the icon made with icon composer Is anyone else experiencing this issue with Icon Composer exports? Is there an official recommendation to avoid this during transitions or should I simply avoid Icon Composer for production icons for now and stick with Illustrator / Figma exports? Thanks so much Here’s a visual example:

When creating an icon using icon composer, I cant upload a build to testflight/App Store connect. Running on device from Xcode works fine, but as soon as I archive and upload to App Store Connect, I get an error saying the icon contains an alpha channel

How to add an app icon created in Icon Composer to an App Playground project?

I am running into an issue where when layers are grouped, the icon is not shown as it does within the preview in the Icon Composer app Is this a bug or is it some setting within the group/app?

so the new icon composer tool allows you to make and preview your logo with liquid glass, upon uploading it to your project earlier versions of ios (e.x. ios 18) use it too but since earlier versions dont have liquid glass the logo looks very out of place. will uploading an AppIcon in Assets make it default for earlier ios versions that dont support liquid glass while keeping the logo from icon composer in ios 26?

I'm trying to update the icon of my app for watchOS 26, and I'm having troubles providing both a layered Liquid Glass icon for watchOS 26 users and a pre-rendered bitmap icon (in various sizes) for watchOS 11 and older users. Whatever I do; I either get a blurry, scaled-down watchOS 26 icon on watchOS 11; or watchOS 11's bitmap icons on watchOS 26. While I could get the wanted result on macOS 26 and iOS 26, I simply can't get an equivalent result with watchOS 26.

Several app developers are struggling with the inability to provide a separate app icons that looks nice on older macOS versions while at the same time provide Icon Composer icons that look great on macOS Tahoe 26. An ability to provide separate icons is super important to those who have app icons that follow the curvature of the default icon borders (as the corner rounding radius is different for Sequia and Tahoe). Take a look at this for example: https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/issues/7564#issuecomment-3042061547 Question: Is there a definitive/recommended way to address this issue? How can a developer add a glass icon variant that looks good on Tahoe and provide a bitmap icon for older macOS versions? Some background info: Prior to Xcode 26 beta 4, one could add an App Icon to Assets to be used as app icon for legacy macOS versions (Sequia and older) and use a new Icon Composer icon (placed in the project root) for macOS Tahoe 26. Enabling "Include all app icon assets" under target settings ensured that older macOS versions would use the old app icons while Tahoe the new Icon Composer glass one. Since Xcode beta 4 this technique no longer works. Xcode instead insists on populating Assets.car with Icon Composer generated variants, disregarding the App Icon provided in Assets. Although the App Icon in Assets makes its way to a .incs file in the app bundle's Contents/Resources folder, but that is not used by macOS anymore and is there for some compatibility purposes. The Assets.car file (which matters) only contains the variants generated by Icon Composer and does not contain the png icons provided in the Assets.

Hello, I used icon composer to create an icon for my Mac OS app and it seemed to have worked. I see the app icon everywhere except for window expose or stage manager. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

On iOS 26 beta 3, my app and some other apps got greyed out app icon. It only happens in Default (Light) appearance. Apple automatically converts third-party app icons to support Liquid Glass, but is there any specific requirement with third-party icons to avoid above greyed out app icon issue?

Hello, I added a new iOS 26 app icon created with Icon Composer (named AppIcon) to my app, while keeping the previous version's icon (in Asset Catalog format, also named AppIcon). However, I found that once the bundle contains the Icon Composer icon file, the app cannot be submitted to App Store Connect. I received the following App Store Connect errors: ITMS-90022: Missing required icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPhone / iPod Touch of exactly '120x120' pixels, in .png format for iOS versions >= 10.0. To support older versions of iOS, the icon may be required in the bundle outside of an asset catalog. Make sure the Info.plist file includes appropriate entries referencing the file. See https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/information_property_list/user_interface. ITMS-90023: Missing required icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPad of exactly '152x152' pixels, in .png format for iOS versions >= 10.0. To support older operating systems, the icon may be required in the bundle outside of an asset catalog. Make sure the Info.plist file includes appropriate entries referencing the file. See https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/information_property_list/user_interface. ITMS-91111: Missing app icon - Include a large app icon as a 1024 by 1024 pixel PNG for the 'Any Appearance' image well in the asset catalog of apps built for iOS or iPadOS. Without this icon, apps can't be submitted for review. For details, visit: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/configuring-your-app-icon. Environment: Xcode 26 beta 3 FB: FB18987592