Develop Reference

Android standard icon for feedback/report by users

I want to add a feature on my app to let users give a feedback on data. (for example to report errors or mistakes).
Is there a standard icon for it?

please, visit your android-sdk-* folder, there should be default set of icons and pictures in the ./platforms/android-XX/data/res/drawable-Xdpi/ where "XX" and "X" stand for your android version and screen size. all the standard icons are there.

There are a few system icons whose filenames match 'feedback', but none of them look appropriate to me.
Best I could find is "ic_menu_report_image.png".

I've been using "ic_menu_start_conversation.png".
Whether it’s useful for your app mainly depends on the iconset you’re already using. In a chat-app for example, this icon would be a poor choice :)
Note: this icon is marked as protected. You'll have to copy the images to your source manually.
Because these resources can change between platform versions, you should not reference these icons using the Android platform resource IDs (i.e. menu icons under android.R.drawable). If you want to use any icons or other internal drawable resources, you should store a local copy of those icons or drawables in your application resources, then reference the local copy from your application code. In that way, you can maintain control over the appearance of your icons, even if the system's copy changes.

How can I use system icons in my android app?

I am programming an android application and I'd like to use the system icons for mail, phone, calendar and contacts inside this application. The problem is, that these icons differ from system to system (different android versions and different smartphones) and I want to keep the application and the system consistent. Is there an easy way to achieve this?

In XML use default android drawables from #android:drawable/... and in code use android.R.drawable....

You can use the standard drawable using
#android:drawable/[icon_name] in your xml file
android.R.drawable.[icon_name] in your java code
You can see different icon in your file system in
[SDK PATH]/platforms/platforms/[ANDROID_VERSION]/data/res
Some images are standard...like contacts, calendar :)

You can't keep system consistent. For what? New versions of Android are usually prettier than older ones (well, it's my opinion).
The only way to keep system icons same for your app - copy them into your drawables instead of using direct reference to them (like #android:drawable/).

First of all if you intend to use the default images (icons) for mail , phonr etc.
This default can be used as android.R.drawable.name in code or #android:drawable/ in xml from http://docs.since2006.com/android/2.1-drawables.php
But as this will vary from OS versinos to Versions.
So , if you need to use an unique GUI for the app for all versions and devices.
Please do not use android provided images , simply use your own graphics or images supplied in drawables resources explicitly by you for your app.

If you're ok with icons from each system you can get it via PackageManager and getApplicationInfo method.
If you're not, you should copy the resources from the platform into your own application.

Can't use android spinner drawable?

I'm trying to use one of Android's spinner drawables (spinner_black_16, spinner_black_20, spinner_black_48, or spinner_black_76) as demonstrated on this page. My project is using SDK 2.1, so I updated it to 2.2 as that page states is the SDK version where these are included. Unfortunately, none of the android.R.drawable.spinner_black_xx appear to be defined.
Are these drawables not available for developer usage? The only other way I seem to be able to access them is via the following convoluted method:
final Drawable spinner = new ProgressBar(context).getIndeterminateDrawable();
Unfortunately, that provides me the white spinner, not the black one.

The best way to access those drawables is to copy them from your SDK directory into your project and then access them like any other resources.
The drawables are located in $ANDROID_SDK_DIR/platforms/android-*/data/res/drawable-*/. You can download and select the version of the OS that you'd like to pull drawables from. API level 7/OS version 2.1 has the full complement:
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-mdpi/spinner_black_16.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-mdpi/spinner_black_20.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-mdpi/spinner_black_48.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-mdpi/spinner_black_76.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-hdpi/spinner_black_16.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-hdpi/spinner_black_20.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-hdpi/spinner_black_48.png
platforms/android-7/data/res/drawable-hdpi/spinner_black_76.png
Though it doesn't currently, Android's official "Icon Design Guidelines" used to explicitly address this situation and recommend copying:
Because resources can change between platform versions, you should not reference built-in icons using the Android platform resource IDs (i.e. status bar icons under android.R.drawable). If you want to use any icons or other internal drawable resources, you should store a local copy of those icons or drawables in your application resources, then reference the local copy from your application code. In that way, you can maintain control over the appearance of your icons, even if the system's copy changes.

Are basic icons in Android system-inherited?

I've noticed that some system programs in Android (Messages, Contacts, Settings, ...) uses the same icon in the menu (search, add, ...), and they're different in (almost) every OS version.
So I have a question. Are they come from system files? Can I use these icon in my program without having to capture-copy-paste them into res folder?
Thanks.

This is what Android UI Guidelines say about Menu Icons:
Warning: Because these resources can
change between platform versions, you
should not reference these icons using
the Android platform resource IDs
(i.e. menu icons under
android.R.drawable). If you want to
use any icons or other internal
drawable resources, you should store a
local copy of those icons or drawables
in your application resources, then
reference the local copy from your
application code. In that way, you can
maintain control over the appearance
of your icons, even if the system's
copy changes.

Yes you can use system resources without copy-ing them to your res folder.
Here is an nice collection of a lot of system drawables.
http://androiddrawableexplorer.appspot.com/
Implementation: e.g.: android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_save"

by coding we can use like this
android.R.drawable.ic_menu_save

How to use default Android drawables

What is the best approach when using default Android drawables? Should I use android.R.drawable or should I copy the drawables in my project and use R.drawable?
Is there any risk, that in a newer version of Android, some of the default drawables are removed or resized? Or, affect in some negative way, the look of my app? Also, which of the drawables in the Android source code are considered "stable" and should be relied on?
I'd rather not copy the drawables because I think that the look of the app should be consistent with the Android version used. So, for example, for version 1.6 it should use the default Android bitmaps for version 1.6.

Java Usage example: myMenuItem.setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_menu_save);
Resource Usage example: android:icon="#android:drawable/ic_menu_save"

As far as i remember, the documentation advises against using the menu icons from android.R.drawable directly and recommends copying them to your drawables folder. The main reason is that those icons and names can be subject to change and may not be available in future releases.
Warning: Because these resources can change between platform versions, you should not reference these icons using the Android platform resource IDs (i.e. menu icons under android.R.drawable). If you want to use any icons or other internal drawable resources, you should store a local copy of those icons or drawables in your application resources, then reference the local copy from your application code. In that way, you can maintain control over the appearance of your icons, even if the system's copy changes.
from: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_menu.html

If you read through any of the discussions on the android development group you will see that they discourage the use of anything that isn't in the public SDK because the rest is subject to extensive change.

Better you copy and move them to your own resources. Some resources might not be available on previous Android versions. Here is a link with all drawables available on each Android version thanks to #fiXedd

To use the default android drawable resource, no need copy anything..
you can just import it first with..
import android.R;
but i will make your own resources will have an error if you want to use it.
The error will be something like:
R. cannot be resolved
So, I prefer not to import android.R but import *my.own.package*.R;
then when I can normally use my own resource with R.drawable.*something* without error,
and put android.R.*something_default* to use the default android resources.

Better to use android.R.drawable because it is public and documented.