How to have icons for both iPhone and iPad? Here's how!

[Amygdala]

Hi guys!

I got a PM from a dev asking how to include icons for both iPhone and iPad in the same app. Doing the upgrade of LabyMania (http://www.amygdala.dk/LabyMania) for iPad, I had this concern. In case someone had the same problem, here is the sollution:

First things first: The icon sizes are for iPhone 57*57 - and iPad 72*72

Right... Next is, for iPhone, the icon in the bundle must be named Icon.png - so this is the 57*57 icon. The one for iPad can actually be named whatever you want. The trick is pointing to the right files in your info.plist. Step by step:

- Backup your old info.plist!
- Open info.plist in a text editor - not XCode.
- remove any CFBundleIconFile and CFBundleIconFiles entries in the info.plist
- Add the following (substitute your filename for the iPad icon...):

<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>
<array>
<string>Icon.png</string>
<string>Icon72.png</string>
</array>

- Make sure both icon files (in this case Icon.png and Icon72.png) are copied to the bundle.
- Done!

When displaying on iPhone, Icon.png is used. When on iPad, the OS determines the correct one based on the size.

- A

[angelsfan27vg]

great post! very informative(:

[deadweight]

The official best practices for iPad dev says you need both a 72x72 and a 48x48 icon for Spotlight search. (Though I read another article that claimed the second one should b 57x57... even for an ipad only app. So confusing.) So if you're doing a universal would that mean you need 3 icons?

I made it through the initial review and I'm resubmitting with the new seed for final review now on an ipad only app. We'll see if it goes through with both 72 and 48.

[Amygdala]

I am also about to submit with the new GM seed. I think iTunesConnect is going to be sloooow today!

Dunno about the 48 px icon though, I never used the reduced size for iPhone. I am pretty sure, that it will appear as a scaled down version of the real icon though...

- A

[GregH]

I got rejected because I did not have a 48pixel icon in my bundle. I assume you can just add it to the list like above? The programming guide says that it will automatically use the appropriately sized icon.

[lukeca]

@GregH really? was this your final submission built with the gm or the beta? I didn't include a 48 either, wondering if I should reject and add it in

[Amygdala]

Strange thing this 48 icon... I never heard about it until a week ago, and now it seems everyone is talking about it. I can only say, that I passed the initial review phase, and got SEED5 approved with a 72 icon for iPad, and a 57 icon for iPhone - it's a universal app.

I submitted for the next round easily without doing anything besides building with the new SDK.

- A