I've noticed two iOS 7 live icons, not counting the numeric notifications on the top right corner of icons: the clock and the calendar. Wonder if/when this will be available to all developers - or if it is already Would work nicely with Kittsy's countdown plugin

The calendar app was always a live icon, even in iOS 1. But you are correct the the new clock icon has become active - this was one thing I wished since iOS 2. However, I do doubt Apple are giving us the capabilities to have live icons. I suppose you could try it with a gif file, but I haven't seen any other icons apart from those Apple ones that are live. I think that many people would quite quickly get frustrated if their app icons started flashing things at them. For now, it just has to be push notifications, I'm sorry to say.

Interesting... It would give apps some of the benefits of widgets / live tiles. And users could control through 'permissions' in settings. Notification center, Siri, live icons and iWatch vs Icon Grid

I have seen some apps with life icons, since IOS5, like weather apps.

Could you give an example? I'm interested now.

A weather app called celsius

Ok downloaded Celsius - uses the red badge push notifications on the top right corner of icons like Gmail and other apps

I suppose if you hosted the icon online on your server, then it could become active, because when you changed it online, it would change the icon on people's screens. However, the user would have to always be online.

Live icons can only be achieved by using Apple's private APIs. That illegal usage will be caught by the Apple robots when your app is submitted for review. For now, and possibly forever, live icons can only be implemented by Apple. Until those clouds have parted, one is relegated to using the numeric badge on the icon. -- Niraj

Thanks Niraj. That's what I sort of thought.