Where is my launcher icon? - android

A quiet basic question: I'm developing an app which should also run on the Fire TV. Is there anyway to add a icon to that launcher?
I know I can go the long way over the settings to start my app, but that is not very handy.
I'm also confused how I need to create my icon for that launcher a standard launcher icon is wrong, because Amazon uses differnt icon sizes. I found some confusing informations that the launcher icons come from the amazon store only. Is that true?

if you are sideloading your apk (adb install or pushing from your development environment) then on FireTV you won't see an icon in the launcher for your app, as you rightly point out you will only see it from the Settings | Applications | Manage All Applications menu.
The only way to have an icon appear there is to either submit and publish it, or use Live App Testing if you're not ready to submit and publish publicly but want to invite some beta testers (you can do multiple submissions through Live App Testing before going live)
When you submit your app (either for Live App Testing, or a full submission) there is an option in the developer portal to upload the various assets - icons, screenshots, descriptions, pricing etc

The default icon for any android app is ic_launcher.png. It's usually located in all the different drawable folder buckets (drawable-mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi). You can change the icon, if you are interested, by placing a new icon in one of the buckets and then modifying the android:icon attribute under the application tag in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

Related

PWA successfully published on Google Play using TWA has an abnormal behave

We published our PWA on Google Play using Trusted Web Activities. App was successfully signed and released.
In order to successfully sign and publish the app, We strictly followed the step by step official tutorial at the following address:
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2019/02/using-twa
We used Android Studio.
The app on google play is:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coelotec.meteodrome
The Android App locally installed on device, calls the following url that points to the web app (PWA):
https://app.meteodrome.it
The Web App, is a PWA developed with Angular 6.0.
Pre-rendering is not activated. Server return the classic bundle of javascripts, html and css.
However some of the users are reporting some issues, such as having two icons on their screen. One is named "MeteoDrome" and the other one "Meteo Drome" with the space.
One of the icons contains the correct logo of the app. The other one has the default android logo. Clicking on the first one, app correctly loads. Clicking the default android logo named "Meteo Drome", browser loads showing the app.
In the first case you correctly see the full screen app, in the second case you see the app wrapped in chrome. When you see chrome the address bar is visible.
Other users reports that they are not able to correctly load app. They usually see white screen instead of the right interface. Especially when the android version is old.
But for many other users app works fine and have no problems.
Many users in facts, neither see two icons on theirs screen nor loads a white screen view.
The app have got many likes and is much appreciated among the users. However it has also an unusual number of uninstalls.
Probably when the app works fine users doesn't uninstall.
We have no idea of what to do.
1) How can We understand what happen when the app is uninstalled and why is it uninstalled?
2) Besides, the users can:
a - find two icons on the screen.
b - find the correct icon on the screen and the android logo in the app list.
c - find only the right icon on the screen without seeing any other icons.
Why does this happen?
3) Why sometime some users report me that they see white screen even if their android version is good to install the app? And in other cases the app works fine?
We really have no idea of what to do and we have some serious problems with the abnormal percentage of uninstall.
Please, help us.
Thanks.
Is possible that some users may have installed the application from the Play Store and also installed using the Add to Home Screen?
The Application available on the Play Store is being server with the default Android logo. The Image Asset Studio inside Android Studio can help with creating new one.
Users with versions of Chrome < 72 or that have other browser as their default browsers will be shown the application in a Custom Tab as a fallback. This can be customised inside your application by implementing your own fallback method.
Finally, a good way to get started with your use case is to checkout the sample application on Github. It is designed to be an easy option to get started with TWAs, and can be used as a starting point for your own app.

My app icon disappears by sending apk to others

I have the following problem using android studio:
I have finished my app and everything is ok when I test it on my android smartphone with the emulator connected by USB.
Then I have sent the apk to a friend for testing and he found out that there was no application icon on the screen.
What can be the reason?
Is the icon only visible in the apk in google play store?
How can I be sure that it is visible when publishing it in the play store?
Or is the reason that I have not defined a round icon but only a rectangular?
Is it necessary to define a round icon (which does not look well for my icon)?
If I do not define a round Icon have I to define the rounded_icon like the rectangular or can I leave the basic android icon or have I to delete the rounded icon property?
I know a lot of questions but arising only from one.
Thank you for help.
bernd
If you want to send to other people your app then you need to Build apk and then sent to anybody
Go to Build/Build apk
and then build that app and sent to anybody
they can install app like any other app.
Their is no problem on defining only round icon
TO generate only square icon click on
new/image asset/
and then go to legacy to generate only square icon

Can I change my Android app icon and name in later release?

This is going to sound stupid in a way, but I want to know if it is possible to change the application logo (icon) and Android name in my subsequent releases?
Say, today I push my app in the Android market, and tomorrow I want to change the logo/icon (I know I "should" not do this), but is it possible to do so? Also, what about the application name?
Thanks
I got the same question and I asked this to android developer support, got their reply as below
You may update your icon displayed in Google Play by uploading the updated icon to the Store Listing tab of the Play Console.
However, once the app has been installed on a device, the icon will be displayed from the graphic assets of the APK as defined in the “android:icon=” manifest property. The icon that is displayed in the apps list in the Play Console is also taken from the APK.
To display a different icon, please update the icon image file in your APK. To find the location of the existing icon, you can use the manifest property or check your APK’s “res” folder.
So I got the icon updated at app store without submitting the app again (Note: I have already submitted with the icon change, so what I was looking to is how this can be reflected to App store icon). Please see screenshots attached for getting someone who is needy.
Yes, you can change the name and logo whenever you want by changing android:label and android:logo attribute of your application tag in AndroidManifest.xml file.
But, you can't change Package name once you uploaded app on play store.
You can Upload custom brand assets, screenshots, and videos to highlight what's great about your app. Provide a localized description, add notes about the latest version, and more. You can update your store listing at any time.
Upload instantly publish
From the Developer Console you can quickly upload and publish a release-ready Android application package file. The app is a draft until you publish it, at which time Google Play makes your store listing page and app available to users—your app appears in the store listings within hours, not weeks.
Once your app is published, you can update it as often as you want: Change prices, configuration, and distribution options at any time, without needing to update your app binary.
As you add features or address code issues, you can publish an updated binary at any time. The new version is available almost immediately and existing customers are notified that an update is ready for download. Users can also accept automatic updates to your app, so that your updates are delivered and installed as soon as you publish them. You can unpublish your apps app at any time.
update
put your image in drawable folder and set in manifest file...
like as
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="#string/app_name" >
....
</application>
Note:
The 512x512 icon you upload to the developer console (when you publish the app) is the one that will be seen in Google Play. The 36x36, 48x48, 72x72, and 96x96 icons you put in your drawable resource folders are what will show up on the device homescreen/app drawer.
Yes, you can change the name by changing android:label attribute of your application tag in AndroidManifest.xml. and also you can change the application icon, but i would recommend you to add the comment in "Whats New" regarding the new Application Icon when you upload the application.But, you can NOT change Package name once you uploaded app on play store.
Also take a look at this SO Post
Yes, you can change Store listing on play store whenever you want and there is no limit for this. you can change and improve your listing in terms of Graphics and SEO improvements.
According to Google Developer Distribution Agreement you can change and Modify:
Application Name
Icon/ Screenshots
Graphics/ feature Graphic
Application Policy and agreements
Featured Video
ASO/ Keywords and description
There is no harm implementing these changes but this could take a while to implement changes depending on account health and your geographical location...
This is my application (Play Store Link...). I have released multiple versions and implemented major changes in each version.
I changed icon and graphics more than 5 times and improved ASO couple of times.
This not just improved my user experience but also increased daily installs.
Based on my experience I will recommend continuous changes for best application optimization. and I want to recommend targeting events like:
Christmas and New year, Independence Day, Halloween update, etc...
These types of updates entertain users and increase engagements and also helpful to build trust with your users.

Different app icon and launcher icon?

Didn't find an answer from Android Dev Center so I had to stop by in Stackoverflow to find few answers...
a) Will my app get rejected if I have different icon for launcher image and Google Play store, ie. Google Play store icon will have text on it, whereas launcher image will not? Small modification will also be present.
b) Can I somehow have different app icon and app name (the one that shows in Google Play and under the launcher icon) depending on language, ie. for English and Finnish?
a) No. There are many kind of apps that doesn't show an icon in launcher, for instance, App Widgets or Live Wallpapers so I guess there are no strict rules about it. However, if the icon on the Play Store identical to the launcher icon, users can easily find your app on the Play Store so those should be same to increase a findability.
b) Yes and No. You can have different app name for each language, in app resources and Play Store listing details. You can also change the launcher icon by putting it into res directory with a locale qualifier, such as drawable-en-xhdpi. However, Play Store doesn't support changing the icon depending on language.
Edited: Now Google Play Store supports using different assets for each locale, so you may specify localized icon individually.
The exact answers of your question can be provided by the google authority. But let me try to share my findings regarding your questions.
a) I haven't found any info like this in the googleplay policies here and here. But In this link in one place it is written that
The assets should reference the same logo and icon as users will
actually find in the All Apps launcher once they have downloaded the
app
So we can conclude that it is must to use the same icon. Although I don't know how they check it.
b) So far there is now way to do that. No info like title, description, images can be set differently for different language ( someone corrects me if I am wrong ). You can do one thing. For different language you can publish different apks with different package name. By searching you can find similar problems. this so question is one of them.
You can Also check Multiple APK support in google play. Although it is targeted for different devices you can check whether the same things can be done for the different languages. (I am not sure about this :S)

Is it possible to have different names for an app on Android market and on the phone?

I have a cool name for my app that shows up when installed on a phone but I would like to have a different name for it on the Android market.
My app uses Facebook's graph API so I want to have something like "AppName for Facebook" so that it can get more Facebook keyword hits on the market but I don't actually want the full name to show up on the phone's home screen (I just want it to show as "AppName"). Is it possible to accomplish this?
The title in the Market is not the same title as on the phone. You can set the title in the Market as you wish.
Go to the developers console, click on your app, then in the details area you can set your title.
The title on the phone is of course set in the AndroidManifest.xml in the application tag
Short answer is yes.
When you upload your application, you get to fill in a 'title'-field on your market site.
The name displayed on the phones is the one you specify in the manifest file.
Yes, like all the others stated, it is possible, as you can enter a custom name when publishing the app (some apps even have stuff like "Sale" in their title).
However, I would not recommend using the word Facebook in your title
It won't impact your rank very much, as your app has only a few downloads
Your app will be removed because Facebook doesn't like apps that have their name in their title and does everything to remove these apps.

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