The Install Funnel, Part 1: Make Your Icon Stand Out | Community Feed

Your app icon is one of the first places you can lose a user before they ever install — yet it rarely gets the attention it deserves. In this MAUI UI July 2026 kickoff, Matt Goldman digs into a striking trend: white icons dominate the top charts, and the reason is strategic rather than aesthetic.

What you’ll learn

The data behind the trend: a hand-counted survey of the top 25 apps across iOS Top Free, iOS Top Paid, Google Play Top Free, and Play Top Games
Why white wins: contrast against a saturated grid, how the squircle mask makes a white background disappear, premium signalling, and an honest look at survivorship bias
The strategic principle: the further you are from a known audience, the more you should lean into high-contrast minimalism — and when you have latitude to break the rule
The practical bit for .NET MAUI: setting up a single MauiIcon source with foreground and background layers, foreground safe zones, solid-colour vs SVG backgrounds, and handling light/dark home screens
A two-minute exercise to test whether your icon actually reads in the store grid

A great read for anyone shipping a .NET MAUI app who wants their icon to earn the install rather than get scrolled past. Head over to the full post to see the breakdowns, screenshots, and .csproj setup — and to catch the teaser for Part 2 on store screenshots.