Reputation: 101

Change Android app icons in APK?

Is it possible to change the app icon in an APK in Android apps? I have a tablet running Android 2.2 and the icons are too low-res, so I want to replace them. I tried unzipping the APK, changing the icon and re-zipping, but it didn't work. Is there any way I can change the icon, even programmatically, to reflect the higher-res icon?

Upvotes: 5

Answers (5)

kefir500

Reputation: 4404

Summary

One the simplest ways is to change APK icons via user-friendly GUI tools:

APK Editor Studio – advanced but still easy-to-use APK editor.
APK Icon Editor – plain and simple APK editor.

Both tools are free and open-source (written in C++/Qt) with the Apktool used under the hood.

Features

Automatically pack, sign and optimize your APK.
Automatic conversion between PNG, BMP, JPEG, ICO, GIF, etc.
Available for Windows, macOS and Linux.

Disclaimer

I am the author of these tools.

Upvotes: 7

PCS

Reputation: 211

If you want change android application icon programatically then you can set it into AndroidManifest.xml file, in the application tag by setting the android:icon property. But if you want to change the icon of third party applications then you cant.

Upvotes: 3

Aleadam

Reputation: 40381

APK files are actually nothing more than zip files. If you just want to replace images, then the easiest way is to open the apk file in 7-zip or winrar and replace the png files in there with your own. Just drag your new files to the 7-zip window.

Note that I said "open" and not "unzip". Once you decompress it, the signature will no longer be valid.

Another option is to use APKManager to do it. This way you do not need to install it in /system/app: