How to Change Your Mac’s App Icons
If you’re tired of the way your Mac desktop looks, consider changing your app icons. This can be a daunting process by default, but luckily there are ways to make it easier. Using these methods, you can make the Dock reflect the aesthetics of your wallpaper, ensure all app icons are the same size, or simply replace ugly app icons with something better.
Where to Find Mac App Icons
While you can easily find icons for various Mac applications with a quick search online, it’s much easier to get them from an icon site. One of my favorites is macOSicons.com , which lists over 25,000 alternative icons, meaning you can easily find multiple variations of popular apps.
Change Mac App Icons Using Built-in Method
macOS lets you change the app icon manually, but it has one annoying drawback. However, it’s easy to get started.
First, download or create an alternative icon, then open Finder and navigate to the Applications folder in the left pane. Select any application and press Command-I to open the information panel. Now drag the new app icon to the top left corner of the Info panel. This will replace your application icon.
This method is fast and free, but unfortunately your app will revert to using the default icon every time you update.
Using free apps to replace macOS icons
You can also use one of two free apps to replace macOS app icons. These are IconChamp and Pictogram . Both show a list of installed apps on your Mac and let you manually select an alternative icon. As much as I recommend these options, both apps haven’t been updated in years, so they don’t always work reliably. For example, IconChamp has a premium tier that supposedly allows you to pay a one-time fee that unlocks the ability to change system app icons. However, the purchase page for this level does not load and it is not possible to purchase it at the time of writing. These free apps may work in a pinch, but if you need a more robust solution for changing app icons, consider paying for a better alternative.
Paid app that can change icons for you.
This brings me to Replacicon , which costs $8 and is probably the best way to customize Mac icons. While $8 is pricey for what is essentially a single-purpose app, Replacicon has several features that may justify the cost for some people. The best one is that it installs a helper tool to monitor app updates and retains replaced icons even after apps are updated. This feature alone is enough to justify the purchase for those who are serious about the macOS theme.
Replacicon also has an easy-to-understand interface that provides a variety of alternative app icons for every app installed on your Mac. Changing an app icon is as simple as clicking one of the options. To use an icon that isn’t listed by default as an alternative, you can also click the + button next to the list and choose from three options: use a downloaded icon file, create an icon from any saved image on your Mac, and use Apple Intelligence to create an icon applications. All three options open a pop-up window, and once you select or create an icon, the app will automatically add it to its list of icons and replace your existing icon. Not having to leave Replacicon to find files is great and makes the process simple.
To make your app list more manageable, Replacicon provides two filters. One lets you view only the apps currently in the Dock, while the other highlights only apps that have legacy icons—from the days when macOS icons came in different shapes and sizes. Currently, macOS icons are a uniform iOS-style size with rounded corners, and you can use the legacy Icon Filter to identify icons that need consistency with the rest of the Dock.