VSCodium
VSCodium icon is put in a bubble of shame on macOS 26
I don't know why but macOS 26 "Tahoe" puts the icon for VSCodium (among other programs) in a bubble to apply its additional visual effects. Given that it's already a rounded rectangle matching the aesthetics of other macOS icons, I'm assuming it's the developers' intention for it to appear like other icons such as the Windows app I've put alongside it in my Dock in this screenshot.
Isn't this the "bubble of security" that keeps VSCodium's icon safe from getting scratched up or bumped into by rouge proprietary icons? Sorry, I couldn't resist :)
It's the bubble of legacy app. @ketsuban use the arm64 version 😉
Edit: maybe...
I also have this issue but, on my Macbook (14'' screen - 1800 x 1169). On my monitor (23 inch - 1920x1080) I have this "in a bubble" issue.
On the Macbook even the dark mode tinting works flawlessly.
@daiyam
Actually, it's a bubble that appears on macOS 26 Tahoe and above.
It appears for apps that haven't updated to liquid glass icons.
As mentioned by @michaelk036 this issue seems related to the monitor on which it is displayed. I'm on a macbook pro with external display and when the dock is displayed on the main (built-in) monitor, vscodium icon shows nice :
but when the dock is placed on my external monitor, it shows this "bubble of shame" border :
The same applies to the app switcher, when displayed on main monitor it is fine (nice glassy aspect) :
but when shown on the external monitor, once again, bubble of shame appears :
I wonder if it could be related to the pixel density of the display since my external monitor is a quite old non-retina display ?
I wonder if it could be related to the pixel density of the display since my external monitor is a quite old non-retina display ?
No, it's a new icon system for Tahoe
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/06/19/macos-tahoes-new-theming-system/ https://simonbs.dev/posts/how-to-bring-back-oddly-shaped-app-icons-on-macos-26-tahoe/ https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Xcode/creating-your-app-icon-using-icon-composer
No, it's a new icon system for Tahoe
Thanks for the quick reply @daiyam (and even more for the great work on vscodium ❤️) ! What surprises me is the different behavior regarding the monitor : on internal built-in display the icons looks fine (it even has glassy/light reflection effect on the blue algae, especially visible in app switcher), is this a bug ?
Edit: I tried the trick mentioned in the 2nd link (ie. re-applying the icon as explained in the "For Users: Restoring Custom Icon Shapes" section), and even if it "seems" to work, the rendering isn't exactly the same as it was on the built-in retina display especially regarding the glassy effect applied on the algae :
after applying the "force icon" trick :
reminder of previous look :
Part of the issue might be not including the 1024 size in the icon bundle. That could explain the change between screens with different pixel densities. Should be easy to fix because libicns release 0.8.1 implements 1024x1024 support so the original 1024 file can just be added to the command.
The rest of the new macOS Tahoe icon features would be a little bit more troublesome to fix. Here's a blog post that explains how to generate the files. As far as I know there's no way to use Icon Composer straight from the CLI to generate the original .icon file and you need to have a macOS install with Xcode to run actool (I don't know how vscodium handles the builds so don't know if we can even fulfil this requirement ).
Can you try the following Insider version that include the 1024px icons: https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium-insiders/releases/tag/1.106.07495-insider
Thanks daiyam.
This is the look of the insider build icon in an external 2560x1440 24" monitor.
App launcher:
Finder:
Spotlight:
This is the look of the icon in my 14" MacBook screen.
App launcher:
Finder:
Spotlight: