App Icon and Conversion: How to Test Icon Changes Safely

• Changing the app icon after publishing requires creating and uploading a new app version and submitting it for review.
• Product page optimization can test alternate app icons, screenshots and app previews, with up to three treatments against the original.
• Alternate icons used in treatments must be part of the app binary for the current App Store version, built with Xcode 13 or later with alternate icon support, and sized 1024 by 1024. Screenshot and preview treatments do not need a new build.
• A test runs for 90 days or until you stop it, and it applies to iOS and iPadOS apps.
• Apple recommends waiting for at least 90% confidence before applying a treatment or stopping a test, and says an applied icon must be included in a new app version.
• Apple names an enticing app icon among the elements of a compelling product page that appear in search.

Apple's example: a developer story with a 44-day, three-treatment icon test where one icon design won.

1. State what you want to learn. "A simpler symbol raises tap-through from search." Write it before you design.
2. Design two or three alternatives that differ in one way. Color, symbol or background. If every treatment differs from the original in several ways, a win teaches you nothing.
3. Ship the icons in a version. Include them as alternate icons in the binary and submit the version. The test can start once the version is live.
4. Run the test long enough. Allocate traffic, keep screenshots and text unchanged, and wait for 90% confidence. More treatments divide traffic; see the traffic split example.
5. Apply, and ship the winner in the next version. Applying a treatment ends a running test. If the winner is an alternate icon, include it in the next app version as your primary icon.

A hypothetical habit tracker, Streakly, wants to test three icons against its current one.

The schedule is an illustration. Apple's cap of 90 days applies; a quiet app may need all of them.

• Conversion rate per treatment in App Analytics, not total downloads.
• Search impressions, if you also changed keywords, because those affect the number of visitors, not the share who download.
• Notes on anything else that changed during the test.

• Do not change the icon, screenshots and subtitle together.
• Do not stop the test the first day a treatment leads.
• Do not copy a competitor's icon. A similar look can confuse users and does not tell you what works for your audience.
• Do not assume an icon that won in one storefront wins everywhere; localize the test where traffic allows.

Icons also appear next to your name and subtitle in search, which makes the combination matter; see the title and subtitle guide.

If your icon is not the bottleneck, test screenshots first: read screenshots that convert. LocalASO focuses on the text and keywords around the icon; see the Optimize docs.