How to create adaptive icons for Android using Android Studio

#android #design

I have found myself with an issue on my android applications not been able to use adaptive icons, resulting in ugly app icons and strange shapes in different launchers, so... the solution was create adaptive icons and works perfectly. 🙂

On API's > 26 android implements adaptive icons, is possible that this causes issues on app icon in existing applications, just like the following example.

To avoid this is necessary to create an adaptive icon. To do so, you need the following assets:

Image icon without background, example below (foreground)
Color background

With this elements you need to follow these steps to generate the icon with the Image Asset Studio.

Open the project in Android Studio
Select the app folder
Go to File → New → Image Asset
On "Foreground Layer" select the provided image and resize in order to get the proper aspect for the icon
On “Background Layer" use the background provided
Click on Next button and then Finish
After that, the icons are created on the "mipmap-* * * *" folder

You need to add the new rounded icons to the respective roundIcon option on the AndroidManifest.xml

    <application
        ...
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        ...>
    </application>

After apply the changes. The app icon will look according to the the guidelines of android for adaptive icons.

Example: Android 9, API 28 stock launcher

Example: Android 7.0, API 24, Smart Launcher

All the info was obtained from the official android information
https://developer.android.com/
https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_adaptive
https://developer.android.com/studio/write/image-asset-studio#create-adaptive

🙂

Top comments (17)

Benji • Mar 27 '20

For some reason when I try:

Select the app folder
Go to File → New → Image Asset

I don't have the option for Image Asset under File → New. I've also tried selecting the res folder and right clicking on the app & res folders in Android Studio and selecting "New" which also doesn't have the option for a new Image Asset.

I'm on Android Studio 3.1.3 and I'm using React Native 0.61.5.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Trey96 • May 26 '20 • Edited

I had that same issue on a cordova project, turns out I had to build the project first. After I built it in Android Studio everything worked

rez4s4 • Jan 19 '21

Hi,you should go in resource manager in the left side of Android studio and choose image asset.if you have any questions im here.

bitten • Jan 11 '20

This is a great guide! Thanks!

My icon has a gradient background, and now the splash screen looks a bit awkward since it has a solid colour and then the icon with a gradient. It's not as seamless. Is it possible to disable the background of the icon on the splash screen? Or do you recommend a different approach?