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Dark apps?
- Thread starter JonnyMacx86
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Are you referring to the apps or the app icons? macOS has had a dark mode for all the built in apps for a few years now.
The dark app icons aren't a part of sequoia from what I can tell. You can change mac icons fairly easily already, with get info and dropping an .icns file on the current icon. There are a myriad of icons online. The main drawback is some apps will overwrite your customization after an update, or logging out/restarting. To prevent apps from overwriting, you can use show package contents, navigate to the .icns file, and swap another in. However, some apps recognize the tampering and make you reinstall (chrome for instance).
What’s the likelihood someone is watching a developer conference and doesn’t know about features that have been built in for the better part of a decade? In my experience, it seems a lot more likely to find thoughtless pedantry on a message board.
This is correct. There is no mechanism to handle icons in macOS like there is on mobile platforms. Even currently some apps provide alternative icons, but none really work.
Sequoia also didn't add any new APIs to this effect. So at least for now, the dark/light icons are mobile only.
The apps that do offer alternates tend to only show them while the app is running. Arc Browser has custom icons that are displayed always, the only app I've seen work properly.
Yeah that's pretty jarring for the user. I've always just opened Get Info and pasted the icon I wanted. Changes it everywhere and has been the go to way to change icons since forever. Maybe Apple will eventually add something down the line to homogenize macOS alongside its mobile platforms.
I am going to say that next year, for macOS 16, dark app icons will be a thing as things tend to follow on macOS after iOS. The rumors have been that next year macOS 16 will be getting some bigger UI updates/changes.
I hope you’re right. I have little faith in Apple showing the macOS the love it deserves, and the inconsistency amongst the platforms like the lack of dark app icons, or a wait a year mentality is maddening. The Mac allows for iOS to exist, but it is all about coin at the end of the day. Miss the days where there were different leaders for each platform (Serlet/Forstall) in competition with one another and driving the platforms forward. The excuse that the Mac is mature doesn’t wash with me. More imagination and attention would be welcome, but I won’t hold my breath. Instead, everything feels stretched thin with the growing number of platforms, and there is an obvious lack of cohesion to boot.