TapTechNews May 28th, developer Bryce Bostwick posted a blog on May 27th, discovering a vulnerability in the iOS system that allows third-party applications to call the official API, thus enabling developers to create animatable application icons.
On the Apple iOS system, currently only two applications, Clock and Calendar, use animated icons that can display the latest time and date.
Bostwick's newly found method allows third-party applications to achieve the same effect.
The built-in 'AlternateAppIcons' (third-party application icons) feature in Apple iOS provides a set of multiple icons for users to choose from. TapTechNews attaches the full video demonstration as follows:
Apple also deploys a protection mechanism to prevent applications from changing icons without user intervention, and Bostwick has found a way to bypass this check, so that applications can change icons as frequently as they like, including quickly enough to create the effect of an animated icon.