iOS 7 FaceTime Icon Revealed In Trademark Filing

Apple's sweeping change of iconography in iOS 7 has prompted no shortage of discussion over the upcoming iPhone and iPad interface change, and now the new FaceTime icon has been revealed too. The new icon, shown off courtesy of the US Patent and Trademark Office sticks closely to the design theme we've already seen Apple use, with a crisp camera outline on a gradated background.

That background is – with its vivid green color – considerably more bold than the existing FaceTime icon. Gone is the faux-metal finish, sticking instead with Jony Ive's new anti-skeumorphic design language that prizes digital authenticity over mimicry of real-world materials.

The approach is yet to convince everyone, however, and in fact iOS 7 is not only shaping up to be the biggest refresh in the iPhone and iPad's software history, but probably their most contentious, too.

On the one hand, some of the lesser-loved features of iOS 6 and earlier, such as the artificial leather and metal finishes in various apps, or software that tries to look like physical notebooks, calculators, or other real-world facsimiles, are long overdue in their replacement. However, the new interface has also been described as unnecessarily simplistic and cartoonish.

It's also similar, in places, to Android and – to a lesser extent, perhaps – Windows Phone, which has done nothing to settle cross-platform arguments.

The new FaceTime icon certainly fits in with the rest of what we've seen from iOS 7, and Apple is likely to feed the rest of its updated graphics through the trademark office in due course. iOS 7 itself is expected to be released this fall.

VIA PatentlyApple