Icon Rewind is a time machine for your phone’s app icons

As dull as I find the current flat design trend, I’ve come to expect developers will stick to it when sketching icons for their apps. It’s tough to admit it, but it’s certainly an improvement over the 3D aesthetic that used to dominate the scene — with some exceptions. But if you’re still struggling to let go of the past, there might be a solution.

Enter Icon Rewind — a web-based app that lets you switch up the icons of some of your favorite apps with an older version. Among others, you’ll find icons for Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook, Google, Slack, Gmail, and YouTube.

All you need to do to bring back the old icons is open Icon Rewind from your mobile device, click on an icon of your choice, and follow the steps. As soon as you do that, the icon will appear on your screen. It goes without saying Icon Rewind only works for apps you’ve already got on your device.

Once you click on the retro icon, it redirects your request from your browser to the actual app. So it’s practically a shortcut with extra steps. It’s not the most elegant solution logistically speaking, but this is about nostalgia, right?

Another downside is that there might be an additional “Chrome” icon  (or whatever browser you used) under the actual shortcut. That’s at least the case on my Google Pixel 4, but I haven’t been able to test out Icon Rewind on other operating systems (or older versions of Android).

Give it a go, and see if you like it. If not, it’s pretty easy to get rid of the shortcut, so at least you have the option. Check out Icon Rewind by clicking here.