With all due respect to those who may think otherwise, or are puzzled by the volume of discussion on the topic, the icon is not trivial.

It’s a front door to the app, the way it introduces itself to strangers. It’s important. It’s a marketing thing.

When a search returns hundreds or thousands of results, it’s either spend the whole day in the play store or use an arbitrary rule to select which apps to consider.

The rule I usually use is “skip the ugly icons.” A quick glance at the icon (picture, thousand words and all that) reveals a lot. If it looks like an icon from 2010, it’s often because that’s the last time the app was updated.

I am confident I am not the only one out there who uses the ugly icon rule.

Some good ideas have emerged from these discussions . Sometimes it gets a little heated (to be honest sometimes it feels like stepping into a snakepit); but that’s because people are passionate about the app and want what’s best for it.

And if Pierre Hébert​​​ wants to change the icon to something outside of current design guidelines, or even to a photo of his kid, for that matter, he can do that. And if after that he finds something he thinks is more appropriate, he can and should change it again.

Because it’s his app, and we are lucky to have the opportunity to continue to help him to make it as uniquely good as it is.

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