Better for custom app icons with Dynamic Island

As we clarified recently in a dedicated article,apps that support the newDynamic Islandare already numerous. As a reminder, theDynamic Islandis a new feature of iOS 16 and exclusive toiPhone 14 Proand iPhone 14 Pro Max. This takes the form of a small animated pill in place of the notch which hides the front lens of the mobiles and displays key information based on the software events that occur.

These include performing automated actions using Shortcuts. Previously, when a shortcut was launched, a fairly intrusive pop-up was displayed at the top of the screen, under the status bar, in order to notify the user directly. This is still the case on iPhones that do not have theDynamic Islandsuch asthe third generation iPhone SEor the “classic” iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 14. But with the punch,the notification is less intrusiveso much so that it makes the use of personalized app icons more comfortable.

What changes

One of the shortcuts that particularly made the headlines with the introduction of iOS 14 in 2020 is the one that allows you to“customize” an app icon on the home screenof the iPhone. More precisely, it actually involves doing without the original icon and replacing it with the image of your choice, configured from Shortcuts to automatically redirect to the launch of this same app. The system is similar to a shortcut on your computer's desktop.

Before the arrival of theDynamic Islandthis year, this solution remained quite interesting for those who, for example, did not want to pay for the Twitter subscription to personalize the app icon. But until now it was at the cost of the imposing notification bubble which then appeared at the top of the panel. With iOS 16 on iPhone 14 Pro, it's ancient history: from now on, if you launch an app via its shortcut from the home screen, it's the Dynamic Islandwhich warns you with a much more compact format.

Some limitations

Using a custom app icon in this way, however, imposes some barriers to entry. Thus, theabsence of the notification counterin red that Apple usually positions at the bottom right of the real icon can interfere with the use of messaging or social networks. The same goes for context menus.