create a standout splash screen for your Android app

in-depth guidelines for the Android splash screen.

A splash screen is a loading screen that appears when you first launch an app. This screen, also known as a launch screen or startup screen, is displayed briefly before the app takes you to the main screen where you can begin using it. The splash screen often displays the company name, logo, and possibly a motto.

There are three common approaches to implementing a splash screen in an app, which are outlined in the following information. Please note that splash screens are usually only displayed briefly and may be easily missed if you look away.

1. Using a Launcher Theme (Recommended)
2. Splash Screen API (Android 12)
3. Using Timers (the old-school style)

Using a Launcher Theme

To create a splash screen using a launcher theme, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Create a drawable resource for your splash screen. This should be a high-resolution image that represents your app’s brand or identity.
2. Open your app’s manifest file and specify the drawable resource as the value for the “windowBackground” attribute in the “style” element.
3. Set the theme of your launch activity to the theme you just created by adding the “android:theme” attribute to the activity element in the manifest file and setting its value to “@style/LauncherTheme”.
4. Add a “splash_screen” category to the intent filter for the launch activity in the manifest file. This will ensure that your splash screen is displayed when the app is launched.
5. Run your app and test the splash screen to ensure that it is displayed correctly.

Note: It is important to keep in mind that splash screens should not be used to display important information or perform lengthy tasks, as they should only be displayed briefly while the app is loading.

Create a drawable resource for your splash screen –

To create a drawable resource for your splash screen in Android, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Open Android Studio and go to the “res” folder in your project directory.
2. Right-click on the “drawable” folder and select “New > Drawable resource file”.
3. Give your drawable resource a name and select “Drawable” as the resource type. Click “OK”.
4. A new XML file will be created in the “drawable” folder. This file will define your drawable resource.
5. In the XML file, you can use the “bitmap” element to specify the image file that you want to use as your splash screen. Set the “src” attribute to the name of your image file, which should be located in the “res/drawable” folder.

Here is an example of what the XML file for a splash screen drawable resource might look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<bitmap xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:src="@drawable/splash_image"
    android:gravity="center" />

In this example, “splash_image” is the name of the image file that you want to use as your splash screen. The “gravity” attribute is used to specify that the image should be centered in the window.

6. Save the XML file and your splash screen drawable resource will be created. You can then use this resource in your app by specifying it as the value for the “windowBackground” attribute in the “style” element of your app’s manifest file.

Open your app’s manifest file and specify the drawable resource as the value for the “windowBackground” attribute in the “style” element.

To specify the splash screen drawable resource as the value for the “windowBackground” attribute in the “style” element of your app’s manifest file, you will need to add the following line to the “style” element:

android:windowBackground="@drawable/splash_screen"

Replace “splash_screen” with the name of your splash screen drawable resource.

Here is an example of what the “style” element of your manifest file might look like with the “windowBackground” attribute set:

<style name="LauncherTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/splash_screen</item>
</style>

In this example, “LauncherTheme” is the name of the theme that you are using for your splash screen, and “splash_screen” is the name of the drawable resource that you want to use as the background.

You will also need to set the theme of your launch activity to the theme you just created by adding the “android:theme” attribute to the activity element in the manifest file and setting its value to “@style/LauncherTheme”.

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:theme="@style/LauncherTheme">
    ...
</activity>

This will ensure that your splash screen is displayed when the app is launched.

Set the theme of your launch activity to the theme you just created by adding the “android:theme” attribute to the activity element in the manifest file and setting its value to “@style/LauncherTheme”.

To set the theme of your launch activity to the theme you created for your splash screen, you will need to add the “android:theme” attribute to the activity element in the manifest file and set its value to “@style/LauncherTheme”.

Here is an example of what the activity element in your manifest file might look like with the “android:theme” attribute set:

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:theme="@style/LauncherTheme">
    ...
</activity>

In this example, “MainActivity” is the name of your launch activity and “LauncherTheme” is the name of the theme that you are using for your splash screen.

This will ensure that your splash screen is displayed when the app is launched. Be sure to also specify the splash screen drawable resource as the value for the “windowBackground” attribute in the “style” element of the manifest file, as described in the previous answer.

Add a “splash_screen” category to the intent filter for the launch activity in the manifest file. This will ensure that your splash screen is displayed when the app is launched.

To add a “splash_screen” category to the intent filter for the launch activity in your app’s manifest file, you will need to add the following line to the “intent-filter” element:

Here is an example of what the “intent-filter” element of your manifest file might look like with the “splash_screen” category added:

In this example, the “action” element specifies that the activity should be launched when the app is launched, and the “category” element specifies that the activity should be displayed as a splash screen.

This will ensure that your splash screen is displayed when the app is launched. Be sure to also specify the splash screen drawable resource as the value for the “windowBackground” attribute in the “style” element of the manifest file, and set the theme of your launch activity to the splash screen theme, as described in previous answers.

Run your app and test the splash screen to ensure that it is displayed correctly.

To test the splash screen in your Android app, you will need to run the app on a device or emulator and observe the initial screen that is displayed when the app is launched.

Here are the steps to run and test your app:

1. Connect your Android device to your computer or launch an emulator.
2. In Android Studio, click the “Run” button or select “Run > Run ‘app'” from the menu.
3. Select your device or emulator from the list of available targets and click “OK”.
4. The app will be installed on your device or emulator and launched automatically.
5. Observe the initial screen that is displayed when the app is launched. This should be your splash screen.
6. If the splash screen is not displayed correctly, or if there are any other issues with the app, you may need to troubleshoot the problem and make necessary adjustments.
7. Once you are satisfied with the splash screen, you can continue testing the rest of the app to ensure that it is functioning as expected.

Note: It is important to keep in mind that splash screens should only be displayed briefly while the app is loading. If the splash screen is displayed for too long, it may cause frustration for the user. It is also important to avoid using splash screens to display important information or perform lengthy tasks, as these should be handled in the main screen of the app.

Splash Screen API

Android 12 has introduced a new Splash Screen API which allows apps to display a splash screen with their app symbol at the center when they launch. However, this new feature can cause inconsistency in design and increase user intrusion as the Android 12 default splash screen will be displayed before the app’s splash screen, resulting in two splash screens being shown. To create a more cohesive look and reduce user irritation, it is necessary to add support for Android 12’s splash screen API. This API offers compatibility with previous API levels and also allows for the use of animated icons through AnimatedVectorDrawable or AnimationDrawable. By following the steps provided, you can create an animated splash screen that matches the theme of your device.

Setup

Before you can use the new Splash Screen API in your app, there are a few settings that need to be configured. To ensure compatibility with earlier versions of Android, you will include a splash screen for those releases as well.

1 – To do this, modify the compileSdk in the build.gradle file for your app module and set the Splash Screen API dependency to version 31. For backward compatibility, you should use the compact version.

android {
    compileSdk = 31
}

dependencies {
    val splahScreenVersion = "1.0.0"
    // Use: def instead of val if you are not using Kotlin Gradle(.kts)
  
    implementation("androidx.core:core-splashscreen:$splashScreenVersion")
}

2 – To allow for customization of the theme according to the user’s device’s dark or light mode, create two files called splash theme.xml in the values directory, one in the values directory and the other in the values-night directory. This will make it easier to keep them organized for future updates.

Note: To create the first file, right-click on the values directory and select “New > Values Resource File.” The second file can be created by typing “values-night” into the directory name box. If your project view is set to Android, the values-night directory should be visible.

3 – For both of the files you have created, you will now create the splash screen theme for dark and light mode scenarios. The theme will be called Theme.SplashThemeName will be derived from Theme.SplashScreen. Your files should look like this:

In values/splash_theme.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
    <!-- Splash Screen Theme. -->
    <style name="Theme.AppSplash" parent="Theme.SplashScreen">
        <item name="windowSplashScreenBackground">@color/dark</item>
        <item name="windowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon">@mipmap/ic_launcher_round</item>
        <item name="windowSplashScreenAnimationDuration">300</item>
        <item name="postSplashScreenTheme">@style/Theme.SplishSplash</item>

        <!-- Status bar and Nav bar configs -->
        <item name="android:statusBarColor" tools:targetApi="l">@color/dark</item>
        <item name="android:navigationBarColor">@color/dark</item>
        <item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">false</item>
    </style>
</resources>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
    <!-- Splash Screen Theme. -->
    <style name="Theme.AppSplash" parent="Theme.SplashScreen">
        <item name="windowSplashScreenBackground">@color/white</item>
        <item name="windowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon">@mipmap/ic_launcher_round</item>
        <item name="windowSplashScreenAnimationDuration">300</item>
        <item name="postSplashScreenTheme">@style/Theme.SplishSplash</item>

        <!-- Status bar and Nav bar configs -->
        <item name="android:statusBarColor" tools:targetApi="l">@color/white</item>
        <item name="android:navigationBarColor">@color/white</item>
        <item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">true</item>
    </style>
</resources>

The contents of the splash screen are elements that are displayed when an app is first launched. The splash screen typically displays the app’s logo or icon and may also include a loading indicator while the app is loading.

The background color of the splash screen can be set using the windowSplashScreenBackground attribute. The icon displayed on the splash screen can be set using the windowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon attribute. It is recommended to use icons with a size of 108dp or smaller to avoid clipping.

The duration of the splash screen can be controlled using the windowSplashScreenAnimationDuration attribute. This attribute controls how long the splash screen is displayed, but it has no effect on the animation of the icon.

After the splash screen is finished, the app’s actual theme can be specified using the postSplashScreenTheme attribute. This is where the default app theme should be set.

The status bar and nav bar attributes can be used to ensure that the status bar and navigation bar have a consistent theme when the app is launched. These attributes are particularly important for devices running Android API level 30 or lower, as they may display default black bars on the status bar and nav bar if these attributes are not set.

It is important to ensure that the desired settings are entered for both the light and dark modes of the splash screen theme. This will ensure that the splash screen looks consistent in both light and dark modes.

<application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.SplashThemeName">
        <activity
            android:name=".ui.main.MainActivity"
            android:exported="true"
            android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    InstallSplashScreen(); // Call the InstallSplashScreen() method here
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  }
}

public class SplashActivity extends Activity {
  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_splash);

    // Start a new thread to display the splash screen for a few seconds
    new Thread(new Runnable() {
      @Override
      public void run() {
        try {
          // Show the splash screen for 2-3 seconds
          Thread.sleep(2000);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
          // Use a timer to navigate to the desired activity
          new Timer().schedule(new TimerTask() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
              startActivity(new Intent(SplashActivity.this, MainActivity.class));
              finish();
            }
          }, 3000);
        }
      }
    }).start();
  }
}