Verticons Icon Pack

Review by eFreeware

Most icon packs end up looking like every other icon pack. Circles, squircles, rounded squares, the same silhouette repeated across the home screen until the whole thing reads as a grid of buttons. If you have spent any time customizing an Android launcher, you know the feeling: you install a pack, admire it for a day, and then the shape stops registering at all.

Verticons Icon Pack takes a different route. It is a paid personalization app from the developer SpaceMan, and instead of the usual rounded silhouettes it draws tall rectangles, closer in proportion to the screens phones actually ship with now. The pitch is that the shape itself is the change, not just the artwork inside it, and that is a more interesting starting point than another color scheme.

It has been on the Play Store since October 2017 and carries a 4.8 average across 2,442 ratings, with more than 100,000 installs. Those numbers matter less than what the pack contains, but they do suggest a theme that people keep rather than uninstall after a weekend.

The shape is the whole idea

Verticons are billed as the tallest practical icons available, and the reasoning behind that is straightforward: modern phones use 18:9 or taller displays, so a tall icon sits more naturally on the grid than a circle does. Whether you agree is partly taste, but the design logic is coherent, and it is the reason to consider this pack over a dozen others.

The icons are not just stretched versions of app logos. The developer describes them as replicating interface details from the apps they represent, so each one becomes a small illustration with references to the original. That is the part I find most appealing, because it means the set rewards a closer look instead of reading as a uniform wall of glyphs.

The library is large: 6,500 icons covering more than 8,000 themed apps, drawn as 256x256 vector artwork. The most recent update, v2.6.0, pushes the count past 6,600 with 50 new icons and a handful of older ones redesigned, which is the kind of housekeeping that keeps a pack from looking dated.

What else comes in the box

Beyond the icons themselves, the developer has built out the pieces that make a pack usable day to day. Icon masking is implemented so unthemed apps still get a consistent silhouette rather than falling back to their original artwork. There are folder icons, generic icons for apps without a dedicated design, and alphabet category icons for organizing things yourself.

The pack includes more than 80 wallpapers at high resolution, which is a useful addition if you would rather not hunt for a background that matches. Dynamic calendar support is included, but it depends on both your launcher and your calendar app, so it will not behave identically everywhere.

For apps that are not covered yet, there is a server-based request tool. That is the practical answer to the fact that no icon pack can anticipate every app, and it means the collection can grow around what you actually use.

What it asks of you

This is a paid app at $1.79, with no ads. It also offers in-app purchases, so the initial price is not necessarily the entire spend if you decide to take up whatever extras are on offer. The content rating is Everyone, which tells you nothing surprising about an icon pack.

The bigger requirement is your launcher. Verticons works with launchers that support standard icon pack formats, and the developer lists Nova, Smart, Lawnchair, Microsoft, OnePlus, Action, Apex, Niagara, Evie, Hyperion, Next, ADW, Holo, TSF, Solo, Square Home and Go among the supported names, with the caveat that Go Launcher does not support masking. Some devices with system-wide theming, such as custom ROMs or OnePlus and Samsung setups, can apply it as well.

Alternate icons are only available if your launcher supports long-pressing an icon and editing it, so this varies from launcher to launcher. If your home screen setup is stock and unmodified, this is not the app that will change it for you.

Getting the proportions right

The developer gives specific setup advice, and it is worth following because tall icons are more sensitive to scale than round ones. The recommendation is an icon scale between 125% and 140%, with icon size normalization switched off. Push them smaller and the shape loses its point; push them larger and they start crowding each other.

A denser grid is also suggested, five or six columns depending on your screen size, for both the home screen and the app drawer. That matches the proportions the icons were drawn for. If your launcher lets you change icon shape, the advice is to use a full square, or a square adaptive shape where that option exists, so masking has a clean base to work from.

None of this is difficult, but it does mean the pack rewards a few minutes in your launcher settings rather than a single tap to apply. If you already enjoy tuning a home screen, that is part of the appeal; if you want something that looks right the moment it installs, expect to spend a little time on the details.

Where the approach has limits

The tall shape is the entire premise, so it follows that the pack is built for people who want that look. If your home screen is arranged around round or square icons and you like it that way, the change here is not subtle, and there is no middle setting that makes the icons shorter.

Masking helps bring unthemed apps into line, but it cannot invent artwork for every app on your phone, which is exactly why the request tool exists. Coverage is broad at more than 8,000 themed apps, yet some of what you have installed may still fall back to a generic icon until it is added.

The in-app purchases are worth noting for anyone who prefers a single upfront cost, and the launcher dependency is a real constraint rather than a formality. Verticons does its job through whatever launcher you run, so a launcher that does not handle icon packs will not benefit from any of it.

A pack for people who theme their phones

Verticons Icon Pack makes sense for a specific habit: you already use a customizable launcher, you change your setup more than once a year, and you notice when an icon pack stops updating. At $1.79 with no ads and a library that has grown steadily since 2017, the value is easy to see for that person.

The strongest argument is the shape. Tall icons suit tall screens, and the developer has built the supporting pieces, masking, wallpapers, category icons and a request tool, around that single decision. The 4.8 average from 2,442 ratings suggests the approach lands with the people who try it.

If you want a home screen that looks deliberate rather than default, and you are willing to spend a few minutes on scale and column settings, this is a reasonable purchase. If you have no interest in changing your launcher, the pack has nothing to work with.

What's new in version 2.6.0

v2.6.0 Verticons now features 6600+ icons! ▪ Added 50 new icons ▪ Redesigned some old icons v2.5.9 ▪ Added 60 new icons v2.5.8 ▪ Added 55 new icons v2.5.7 ▪ Added 70 new icons v2.5.6 ▪ Added 50 new icons v2.5.5 ▪ Added 44 new icons v2.5.4 ▪ Added 60 new icons v2.5.3 ▪ Added 48 new icons (Full changelog in app)