How to localize an app icon?

Question

I am comfortable with localizing strings and images within the app. But I am having a lot of difficulty trying to localize the app icon for my supported languages (english and german).

Is this even possible? According to the Apple documentation, you can:

An iOS application should be internationalized and have a language.lproj folder for each language it supports. In addition to providing localized versions of your application’s custom resources, you can also localize your application icons and launch images by placing files with the same name in your language-specific project directories. Even if you provide localized versions, however, you should always include a default version of these files at the top-level of your application bundle. The default version is used in situations where a specific localization is not available. For more information about localized resources, see “Localized Resources in Bundles.”

I have tried to do this with no luck. There doesn't seem to be any helpful resources?

Other things I've tried:

Localized App Icons with Retina Display for iOS

https://iphonedevsdk.vanillaforums.com/forum/iphone-sdk-development/77660-i-have-problem-localizing-application-icon.html

Has anyone successfully achieved a localized app icon?

Answer 1

Since iOS 4.0, this simply doesn't seem to be possible anymore. As of 2015, the documentation has been updated and now only states that Launch Images can be localized (but does not mention App Icons anymore).

The fact that this isn't working has been confirmed by an an Apple employee on the devforums (login required) in 2010: https://devforums.apple.com/message/330960

Bugreports have been submitted for several years, but nothing has changed. I suppose Apple wants you to use the same icon for your app all over the world – or create separate apps for specific markets.