I've been developing an app to android for a while and I've been trying different devices with multiple screens dimensions and different OSes.
I was testing the app within a Wiko Robby and I've noticed that the app icon had a background added that on previous devices weren't present.
The right side icon is owned by the OS, whilst the left one is mine. The background I would like to remove is that subtle rounded corner box background that was added the the background of the icon.
I've been searching and what I want can be achieved by installing 3rd party apps to edit the OS theme, but I don't want to do that, nor asking the users to do so.
Is there anyway I can remove the background?
This is not possible, unfortunately. This feature is entirely managed by the home screen and developers have no control over it.
I don't think that you should worry about it, though. The user is probably used to see this background behind 3rd party app icons and he will probably not even notice it on your app. I would even argue that it can be disturbing for the user if your icon was displayed without this background, as this could led him to believe that your app is a system app.
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I'm working on an application which contains a transparent screen and I need other applications such as Google Maps to run behind it, is there a way to run 2 apps simultaneously ?
Currently when I open my app all I see behind it is the menu displaying all opened apps, but can't figure out how to keep apps running behind mine.
I'm working on an application which contains a transparent screen and I need other applications such as Google Maps to run behind it
Given the fact that other developers write those other applications, you have no reliable way to knowing exactly what the user can see through the transparent portion of your UI. That will vary based on device, version of the other app, etc.
Currently when I open my app all I see behind it is the menu displaying all opened apps
What is visible through your transparent portion of your UI is whatever activity happens to be behind it.
can't figure out how to keep apps running behind mine
The decision of what other apps do is up to the developers of those other apps, not you.
is there a way to run 2 apps simultaneously ?
You are certainly welcome to start some activity (e.g., a map), and then some time later start some other activity (e.g., the one of yours with the transparent pane). What the other app does, when you do this, is up to the developers of the other app, not you.
I am working with a team to develop a cross-platform application on mobile, and we're using Visual Studio 2015 and Xamarin.Forms v2.3.2.127.
We have already created the application icons that we need for the three different platforms (Android, iOS, UWP) and each one follows the native platform specifications.
There's only one more problem that we have faced, and I would like to know if there's any answer for my problem. Some of the devices that run Android OS forces the application icon to have a squared background, and they seem to give arbitrarily colours for the background (please check the image afterwards). We don't want to change the application icon by itself for Android so we're looking for a better way.
Is there any way in Xamarin to be able to detect that the device is adding a coloured background for the application icon so we can provide it with the icon that we want, or at least change the colour the device is going to use?
As you can see, Whatsapp, Facebook and Dropbox icons are all modified and given a squared coloured background.
Thanks in advance for any help that could be given.
Regards, Paul.
This is a custom launcher / icon pack's doing. Most likely the manufacturer's doing(LEAGOO). You may notice that "Known" apps will have a custom icon, but if you created a custom app it might look much different with a random background and perhaps an icon transformation of some sort.
It might be worth getting a stock Android device to ensure your Icon looks great on stock Android as you'll never know what different launchers(bloatware) will do to your app's icon.
If the OEM has a way to interop with it, then by all means that would be the easiest way to customize this behavior. However most launchers are included in the OEM's package/bloatware.
I want to add black padding (a thick black border) to the android screen such that every app is displayed with the padding around it. I know how to do this for my app but how do I do this such that when my app is running in background the display is padded?
I don't believe this is possible unless you're willing to create and run a custom ROM.
Thankfully, this is not possible for the average non-ROM third party Android developer.
The screen on mobile devices is actually very limited, and when programming for the mobile environment, you have to learn to get away from the windows metaphor used by traditional desktop PCs.
On the other hand, may be your app could pretend it is running in the background, but still stay in the foreground with its transparency enabled. And perhaps if you can't do something, may be you can find a way to fake that something for your users.
Also, note that the default home launcher is capable of doing something similar to what you want, but only for widgets. And if being able to run widgets is sufficient for you, perhaps you could write your own launcher application that can embed widgets.
I would like to make an icon counter for andoid just like the Email and the Samsung Apps applications i have seen such requests from other developers, but you all say it can't be done.
if so how come those 2 apps and other apps can do it?
do i have to make like more than one icon image and swap them or something?
is it really cant be done and why?
thanks.
you all say it can't be done.
That is because it cannot be done, except by the maker of the home screen, or via an app widget (instead of a launcher icon).
if so how come those 2 apps and other apps can do it?
Because Samsung wrote the home screen and can do what it wants with its home screen.
do i have to make like more than one icon image and swap them or something?
That will not work, as you cannot change the launcher icon at runtime.
is it really cant be done and why?
It really can be done by making an app widget, or by making your own home screen.
I need a screen control (possibly but not mandatory an app widget) that will seat
on Android's homescreen and will always be visible to the user - even when he scrolls the homescreen to the next page.
Please help me if any body have done this before.
I think the only way you will be able to do this is if you implement your own Launcher.
The functionality that you're looking for, being able to place a static widget on every screen of the launcher regardless of how many screens they have, isn't currently available in Android, nor any of the launcher apps out there (Go launcher, ADW, Launcher pro etc) nor any of the versions of Android which have been rewritten by the phone manufacturers (HTC's Sense, Samsungs Touch Wiz etc)
It's a big job to write a Launcher yourself, but the stock Android Launcher code is available to play about with from https://android.googlesource.com.