Researcher finds iOS exploit that lets developers create animated app icons

It’s been a while since Apple let developers provide alternative icons for their apps, so that users can change them whenever they want. However, except for Apple’s Clock and Calendar apps, the system has no animated or interactive icons – but a researcher has found an exploit that enables just that.

iOS apps with animated icons

Bryce Bostwick recently found an exploit in iOS that lets developers create animated app icons. More specifically, the exploit uses the system’s official API to provide alternative app icons, but bypasses the requirement for the action to be performed manually by the user.

In a typical scenario, iOS requires the user to choose a custom icon in the app – and then the system displays an alert confirming the change. The action of changing an app’s icon is canceled if the system is unable to verify that it was the user who chose another icon or if the confirmation alert is not shown. As a result, there’s no way for an app to change its icon on its own in the background.

But by using a private method to call the API, Bostwick was able to set custom icons without requiring confirmation from the user. The researcher also tricked the system into modifying the app’s status check, so that iOS sees the app as active even when it’s running in the background.

This allows the app to change the icon automatically in the background whenever it wants. To demonstrate the possibilities, Bostwick combined multiple frames to make animated icons. Although the idea of having all the icons animated is a bit disturbing, the researcher believes it would be nice to let apps show short animations when they receive a notification, for example.

Of course, the App Store Review team would probably reject any apps exploiting such a breach.

You can watch the full video demonstrating the exploit in action below:

iOS 18 to get revamped Home Screen

Although there are no rumors about iOS getting animated icons, recent reports suggest that Apple will give the iPhone Home Screen a major overhaul with iOS 18. The company has reportedly been working on new options to let users move icons freely around the screen, as well as letting them choose a background color for app icons.

iOS 18 will be announced on June 10 during the WWDC 2024 kick-off event.

• Apple may label iOS 18 artificial intelligence features as a beta preview, signaling Apple is still playing catch-up
• Rumor: iOS 18 will let users create custom emoji using generative AI