How the iOS 6 ChamelonBar gets its color  

Designer Max Rudberg relating Simon Blommegård’s discovery of how the color adapting status bar in iOS 6 chooses its color.

Blommegård found that simply changing the bottom row of pixels in the header bar of an app alters the status bar’s color. This means that the color of the bar can be changed by altering just that row. Even wierder, it takes an average, meaning that you can mix colors in the bottom row, creating a blend.

@msson Nope, alltid pixeln längst ner, och för att göra det ännu mer funky. / @maxrudbergtwitpic.com/9wkqbk

— Simon Blommegård (@blommegard) June 15, 2012

Every designer I spoke to this past week assumed that it was simply grabbing the base tint of the header bar. This is so odd.

I’m not a fan of the color changing bar myself, it feels funky and works in counter-purpose to the basic ‘information appliance’ concept that was the genesis of the iPhone. Simply put, the bar draws attention to itself and away from the app, rather than disappearing into the device, as it should.

It may still grow on me, but so far I’m putting this on my list of hopeful pulls. Perhaps someone can change my mind.