Thanks to iOS 14, users can finally customize their home screens, for real, and not just rearrange the app icons like before. Following the release of Apple’s latest iOS update, iPhone fanboys went crazy on social media showcasing their unique, customized home screens. This gave one designer the opportunity to earn a few bucks by selling custom app icons. But, no one expected that he would go on to earn over $115,000 (around Rs. 84 lakhs) in under a week.
Known as Traf on the internet, the individual has been a designer of custom app icons since 2013, at a time when iOS jailbreaking was in full effect. Then also, he created a pack of custom app icons and earned $17 (~Rs. 1249).
After the huge popularity of aesthetic iOS 14 home screens on social media, the creator put together some custom app icons, downloaded some widgets, and went on to show off his home screen to the world on social media.
For the unaware, you cannot officially create custom app icons for your favorite apps in iOS 14. However, the users have discovered a workaround to add customized app icons using the ‘Shortcuts’ app. But, it is still quite a hassle to create custom app icons in iOS 14.
Almost immediately after he shared the screenshots, people went crazy for his custom icons and started enquiring. So, to meet popular demands, Traf quickly packaged his app icons in a set and uploaded it to Gumroad, a platform for selling films, courses, and other creations. Apart from this, he also embedded the icons on a Notion site using Super to promote his creations among enthusiasts.
In a day or two, Traf’s tweet had millions of likes and impressions and at this time, the sales of his app icon pack earned him around $6,000. However, the magic happened when Traf’s icons were featured in one of the latest videos of the popular tech YouTube creator, Marques “MKBHD” Brownlee.
For those unaware, MKBHD recently had released a video, called “The Ultimate iOS 14 Homescreen Setup Guide”. In this video, Brownlee featured Traf’s icons and also gave a link to his icon set in the description.
“The next thing I know, I was making $28 what felt like every 28 seconds. My phone turned into the ultimate dopamine dispenser (if it wasn’t already). I had to disable notifications. The day after, sales jumped from $6k to about $40k, and during the time of this writing, sales are at $116,147 from 4,188 customers.”, wrote the creator in his personal blog post.
The creator notes that although this seems like a lucky feat, it has been in the making for him for the last seven years. He also mentioned that “the right content, posted at the right time, can create unimaginable results” and you know what? It sure can.
You can check out the popular custom app icon set from Traf right here.
