UITabBar change background color of one UITabBarItem on iOS7

You can add a subview to the parent tabBar, and set a background color on the subview. You can use the tabBar frame dimensions to calculate the offset and width of your tabBarItem, and then insert the subview underneath.

Example (in Swift):

// Add background color to middle tabBarItem
let itemIndex = 2
let bgColor = UIColor(red: 0.08, green: 0.726, blue: 0.702, alpha: 1.0)

let itemWidth = tabBar.frame.width / CGFloat(tabBar.items!.count)
let bgView = UIView(frame: CGRectMake(itemWidth * itemIndex, 0, itemWidth, tabBar.frame.height))
bgView.backgroundColor = bgColor
tabBar.insertSubview(bgView, atIndex: 0)

in Swift: This solution is for apps using Auto Layout . Main difference between other solution is that: tabBar.frame.width is not getting actual device's screen width. So, bgView is appearing wrong place.

You can fix it with this : UIScreen.main.bounds.width

let tabWidth: CGFloat = UIScreen.main.bounds.width / CGFloat(self.tabbar!.items!.count)
let tabIndex: CGFloat = 2
let bgColor: UIColor = .redColor
let bgView = UIView(frame: CGRectMake(tabWidth * tabIndex, 0, tabWidth, 49))
bgView.backgroundColor = bgColor
self.tabbar!.insertSubview(bgView, atIndex: 0)

49 is a default height of UITabbar

Objective C solution:

int itemIndex = 3;
UIColor* bgColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:(245/255.f) green:(192/255.f) blue:(47/255.f) alpha:1];

float itemWidth = self.tabBarController.tabBar.frame.size.width / 5.0f; //5 = tab bar items
UIView* bgView = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame: CGRectMake(itemWidth*itemIndex, 0,itemWidth, self.tabBarController.tabBar.frame.size.height)];
bgView.backgroundColor = bgColor;
[self.tabBarController.tabBar insertSubview:bgView atIndex:1];