How to add a number over your app icon using applicationIconBadgeNumber

Swift version: 5.1

Paul Hudson    @twostraws    May 28th 2019

Once your app has the user’s permission to do so, you can show numbers over your icon to indicate outstanding tasks, unread messages, game invites, or whatever makes sense for your app.

You do need to get their permission, though, so you should start by adding an import for the UserNotifications framework, then request permission with code like this:

UNUserNotificationCenter.current().requestAuthorization(options: .badge) { (granted, error) in
    if error != nil {
        // success!
    }
}

Once you have that permission – anywhere inside the // success! comment or at some point afterwards – you can place an integer badge of your app icon with one line of code:

UIApplication.shared.applicationIconBadgeNumber = 1

Available from iOS 2.0

Similar solutions…

• How to run code when your app is terminated
• How to change your app icon dynamically with setAlternateIconName()
• How to localize your iOS app
• How to create live playgrounds in Xcode
• How to detect images using ARImageTrackingConfiguration

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.