There’s a small problem with changing app icons from squircles to circles in iOS 19

While there may be debate about whether iOS 19 will be a UI revolution or evolution, there does seem to be a consensus view on app icons. Namely, that they are likely to switch from squircles – squares with rounded corners – to circles. Whether one looks better than the other is of course a matter of subjective judgement. But there is a small problem with circular icons … If you look at current iPhone icons, they can be broadly divided into three: An underlying square design An underlying circular design No inherent shape Let me show you what I mean by this. The Home and Wallet apps are a good example of an underlying square design – the graphics are square (or at least rectangular, tending to square), so can be as large as desired within the squircular space: In contrast, some apps use circular graphics, with Safari and Spotify good examples. There’s again no real constraint on the size of a circular graphic within a squircle – we can see here that Apple has chosen to use most ... Read full article.