android app design screen size

This article has now been superseded by the latest Lollipop 6.0 Android Icon Size Guide. Please click on the image below for the latest information.

What are Android Icon Sizes?

It is a simple question but even Android, who provide better documentation than most, seems to make you want to work a little for the answer. Fear not, I have done the work for you!

Android Icon Sizes – App Launcher

What sizes do I need for Android App launcher icons? If you want to design your own or commission a professional to design your custom icons, you really need to know the right sizes.

Quick answer: 48 px, 72 px, 96 px, 144 px, 192 px & 512 px (for Google Play Store).

What about the Google Play Icon?

Google play requires a single additional version of the Icon in 512 x 512 pixels.

Understanding Android Icon Sizes

Android approach their Icon Size documentation slightly differently to other platforms, concentrating on different pixel densities rather than the simple facts we want. However, it is worth taking a moment to understand why they use this approach.

As technology has progressed, manufacturers have brought out hardware with ever increasing resolutions and pixel density. An increase in pixel density or dots per inch (dpi), basically means more image information can be displayed with.

MDPI – Medium Pixel Density – also known as the 'Baseline'
HDPI – High Pixel Density
XHDPI – Extra High Pixel Density
XXHDPI – Extra Extra High Pixel Density

Note: Android also supports low-density (LDPI) screens, but you normally don't need to create custom assets at this size because Android effectively down-scales your HDPI assets by 1/2 to match the expected size.

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Android Icon Sizes – User interface

All Android icons follow the same scaling rules, so when creating your icon files you must make 5 versions to cover all the platforms available. The table below shows the pixel densities and icon sizes for the different types of user interface icons used by Android:

	MDPI (Baseline)	HDPI	XHDPI	XXHDPI	XXXHDPI
Scale	1 x	1.5 x	2 x	3 x	4 x
DPI	~ 160 dpi	~ 240 dpi	~ 320 dpi	~ 480 dpi	~ 640 dpi
App Launcher Icons	48 px	72 px	96 px	144 px	192 px
Action bar Icons	32 px (24px inset)	48 px	64 px	96 px	128 px
Small / Contextual Icons	16 px (12px inset)	24 px	32 px	48 px	64 px
Notification Icons	24 px (22px inset)	36 px	48 px	72 px	96 px

Whilst the user interface icons follow the same scaling rules as the app launcher icon, they also have some additional display rules of their own:

Android Action bar Icon Sizes

Action Bar Icons require a file size of 32×32 pixels at the baseline size (MDPI). However, the image itself must be no more than 24×24 pixels centred within the Icon file.

The Icon Design must be single colour #666666 with a transparency set to 60%

Android Small / Contextual Icon Sizes

Action Bar Icons require a file size of 16×16 pixels at the baseline size (MDPI). However, the image itself must be no more than 12×12 pixels centred within the Icon file.

The Icon Design must be single colour #666666 with a transparency set to 60%

Android Notification Icon Sizes

Action Bar Icons require a file size of 24×24 pixels at the baseline size (MDPI). However, the image itself must be no more than 22×22 pixels centred within the Icon file.

The Icon Design must be single colour white, #ffffff.

Android's own icon guide can be found here:

Android Iconography

I hope this Android Icon size guide has been helpful. Please let me know if there is something else you would like me to add or elaborate on. Thanks!

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Owner and creative director at Creative Freedom Ltd. Unbelievably cool icon design expert, husband, and father of two awesome girls. A proper decent chappy and thoroughly fab to work with. Ok, so I wrote my own bio…