Setting Icons for Android Applications

When developing an Android application, setting an icon is essential to represent your app on the user’s device. In this tutorial, we will walk through the process of setting an icon for your Android application.

To set an icon for your Android application, you need to provide multiple versions of the icon in different sizes and densities. This ensures that your icon looks good on various devices with different screen resolutions.

Creating Icon Variations

You can create icon variations manually or use tools like Android Asset Studio. If you choose to do it manually, you should place your application icon into the different res/drawable folders provided. In each of these folders, include a 48dp sized icon:

• drawable-ldpi (120 dpi, Low density screen) – 36px x 36px
• drawable-mdpi (160 dpi, Medium density screen) – 48px x 48px
• drawable-hdpi (240 dpi, High density screen) – 72px x 72px
• drawable-xhdpi (320 dpi, Extra-high density screen) – 96px x 96px
• drawable-xxhdpi (480 dpi, Extra-extra-high density screen) – 144px x 144px
• drawable-xxxhdpi (640 dpi, Extra-extra-extra-high density screen) – 192px x 192px

Alternatively, you can use Android Studio to create icon variations automatically. To do this:

1. Go to menu File → New → Image Assets.
2. Select Launcher Icons and choose your image file.
3. Adjust the settings as needed and click Done.

Android Studio will generate the necessary icon variations in the correct sizes and densities.

Setting the Icon in AndroidManifest.xml

Once you have created your icon variations, you need to define the icon in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

<application android:icon="@drawable/icon_name" android:label="@string/app_name">
    ...
</application>

Replace @drawable/icon_name with the actual name of your icon resource.

Using Mipmap Folders

Instead of using res/drawable folders, you can also use mipmap folders to store your icon variations. To do this:

1. Place your icon variations in the corresponding mipmap folders (e.g., mipmap-ldpi, mipmap-mdpi, etc.).
2. Update your AndroidManifest.xml file to reference the icon resource:

<application android:icon="@mipmap/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
    ...
</application>

Replace @mipmap/icon with the actual name of your icon resource.

By following these steps, you can set an icon for your Android application that looks good on various devices. Remember to use the correct sizes and densities for your icon variations, and update your AndroidManifest.xml file accordingly.