App icon design is a big deal. Just enter those two keywords in Dribbble and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Previewing app screens on the target device(s) isn’t difficult at all, with tools such as Skala and Silkscreen, which allow you to mirror your design in Photoshop on your iDevice’s screen. But what about app icons? How can you preview those, without knowing a lick of code? Previ.co, a simple web app by Guillaume Gaubert, helps you do just that.

All you have to do is upload your app icon to a cloud service such as CloudApp or Droplr, and paste the link to the icon into the field on Previ.co. The site then generates a link for you to add to your iOS device’s home screen. It’s a very simple process, and the results are stunning.

The overall design of the tool itself is dark and minimal, with responsive icon previews. The links that the app generates are very short, so it’s easy to share your icon for other users to view on their devices. To make your icon look pixel-perfect on your retina (or non-retina) home screen, just use this icon template by Michael Flarup. I used it to make the icon you see in those screenshots, although the text isn’t that readable on the icon itself (I wouldn’t have known that if I didn’t use Previ.co).

If you’re an iOS app designer who wants to quickly preview an app icon on a real device, take Previ.co for a spin now!