Android - app icon for debug and release mode

Question

Is it possible to set separate icons for application if we set android:debuggable=true in manifest and if we set android:debuggable=false like in iOS?

Answer 1

I'm a bit late the party, but anyway. At the moment I'm posting this in '16, you actually can have different launch icon set simply putting them to respective directories, not sure how it was back in '13 though. To achieve that you need to create debug/res directories under app/src and place your mipmap or drawable directories there. So you'll have app/src/main/res/ and app/src/debug/res/ paths. Android will have higher priority for build-related resource directory - to main directory. Place your debug and release resources to the appropriate paths and you'll have what you want. Do all of above considering you have to use Gradle build system.

Here you can read more about stuff like that: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/resource-merging

Answer 2

A bit late but I'll leave my solution for who is looking for the same answer.

On the build.gradle where the buildTypes are defined, I added a suffix for my debug_test build type to have a different apk installed on my device.

buildTypes {
    release {
        ...
    }
    debug_test {
        debuggable true
        applicationIdSuffix '.debug'
        ...
    }
}

After that, go to File > New > Android Resource Directory and create a new mipmap resource directory for your debug_test build type (as you can see on Source set):

I've created the mipmap folder because it's the folder for placing your app/launcher icons in only. All the other images should be placed in the drawable folders.

Add the ic_launcher icon to the folder created (app > src > res > mipmap > ic_launcher.png).

Now, just reference your icon on your AndroidManifest as below:

<application
    android:name=".MyApplication"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
    ...
</application>

And the magic is done!

Answer 3

as far as i know app icons are only dependent on the drawables folder they are in, and there is no folder qualifiers for -debug and there's no way for you to alter the icon based on manifest changes

Answer 4

You need gradle and build flavors to do this. Then you can have different resource folders for the different flavors.

http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide#TOC-Product-flavors

Answer 5

I know this is an old question - but if anyone else searches for this...

You can do this by creating a debug manifest (src/debug/AndroidManifest.xml) and updating its properties.

See: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide/manifest-merger#TOC-Markers

Answer 6

a bit late (actually about 8 years), but while I was browsing DuckDuckGo's Android source code today, I found out that they do it this way:

in your app/build.gradle:

android {
    ...
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            ...
            manifestPlaceholders = [
                    appIcon: "@mipmap/ic_launcher_blue",
                    appIconRound: "@mipmap/ic_launcher_blue_round"
            ]
        }
        release {
           ...
            manifestPlaceholders = [
                    appIcon: "@mipmap/ic_launcher_red",
                    appIconRound: "@mipmap/ic_launcher_red_round"
            ]
        }
    }
    ...
}

and in your AndroidManifest.xml just use:

<application
     ...
     android:icon="${appIcon}"
     android:roundIcon="${appIconRound}"
     ...
/>
   ...
</application>

Answer 7

Whereas the response by Alex is fine in case flavors are not in use, for getting different icons while using different flavors with multiple dimensions, such as:

flavorDimensions "color", "size"
productFlavors {
    black {
        dimension "color"
    }
    white {
        dimension "color"
    }

    big {
        dimension "size"
    }
    small {
        dimension "size"
    }
}

This can be achieved as:

First, put the debug resources in separate folders, such as:

src/blackDebug/res
src/whiteDebug/res

Second, put the key with multiple flavor dimensions is that the sourceset name must contain all the possible flavor combinations, even if some of these dimensions do not affect the icon.

sourceSets {
    // Override the icons in debug mode
    blackBigDebug.res.srcDir 'src/blackDebug/res'
    blackSmallDebug.res.srcDir 'src/blackDebug/res'
    whiteBigDebug.res.srcDir 'src/whiteDebug/res'
    whiteSamllDebug.res.srcDir 'src/whiteDebug/res'
}

Just to make it clear, the following will not work when multiple dimensions are in use:

sourceSets {
    // Override the icons in debug mode
    blackDebug.res.srcDir 'src/blackDebug/res'
    whiteDebug.res.srcDir 'src/whiteDebug/res'
}

Answer 8

A simple solution without fiddling gradle:

create a folder debug under module_name/src then under debug create folder res/drawable or res/mipmap and put your debug icon there.

When you finished the above there won't be an extra "res" folder for the debug resources, but you'll see the "debug" annotation alongside your resources, like this:

(the second ic_launcher.xml is placed under src/debug/res/mipmap and it uses an adaptive background in src/debug/res/drawable)

Thus when the build variant is selected to debug, you'll see the icon is the debug icon you provided and when the build variant is set to release, you'll have the release icon.

Proved and used in production.

Answer 9

You may try having two different app icons in your drawable folder - namely:

1. drawable/app_icon_release
2. drawable/app_icon_debug

When setting debug mode to true:

<android xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<manifest>
        <application 
            android:debuggable="true"
            android:icon="@drawable/app_icon_debug"
            android:label="Your App Name" >

        </application>  
</manifest>
</android>

Otherwise, when debug mode to false:

<android xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<manifest>
        <application 
            android:debuggable="false"
            android:icon="@drawable/app_icon_release"
            android:label="Your App Name" >

        </application>  
</manifest>
</android>