How to replace the new lame Hipchat icon with something less lame
A few days ago, Hipchat pushed a new OS X app update that changed the icon in addition to fixing a number of bugs. Usually, I support a designer’s vision to shape a product’s image, but I just couldn’t stand the square logo. It makes me sadface, y’all. It didn’t fit well in my dock, it stuck out when I used cmd+tab, and seeing the OS X app notification every few minutes made me hate it. Almost as much as I hate Duke Basketball. It’s up there.
I’m not the only one though. Just a few tweets in the last few hours:
So HipChat somehow managed to make their Mac app icon even more hideous than it already was. Thanks for that. — @billlabus
The new hipchat icon is really harshing the vibe of my dock. Not aesthetically pleasing at all. — @julipuli
Wow you guys weren’t kidding about the new HipChat app icon. — @zacwest
I have an unnatural hatred for the new @hipchat icon. This is not a Mac icon. — @ChiperSoft
So I fixed it. I took the largest PNG file from their press page, made it transparent, and added a solid white fill. Here your go, folks. Have fun.
If you don’t know how to change an application’s icon on a Mac, here’s a quick how-to.
- Open up the icon file in Preview.
- CMD+A to select the image.
- CMD+C to copy the image.
- Use Finder to go to where you have the app installed (usually /Applications).
- Highlight the app, but don’t open it yet!
- CMD+I to open the info pane.
- Click the icon once in the info pane so that it’s selected.
- CMD+V to paste in the new icon.
- Close the info pane and restart the app.