Android icon vs logo

Question

The <application> tag for the Android Manifest contains a logo attribute which I have never seen before. What is the difference between your application's icon and its logo? Is it used purely for market?

Answer 1

The ActionBar will use the android:logo attribute of your manifest, if one is provided. That lets you use separate drawable resources for the icon (Launcher) and the logo (ActionBar, among other things).

Source: Android: How to change the ActionBar "Home" Icon to be something other than the app icon?

---

setDisplayUseLogoEnabled() Enables the use of an alternative image (a "logo") in the Action Bar, instead of the default application icon. A logo is often a wider, more detailed image that represents the application. When this is enabled, the system uses the logo image defined for the application (or the individual activity) in the manifest file, with the android:logo attribute. The logo will be resized as necessary to fit the height of the Action Bar. (Best practice is to design the logo at the same size as your application icon.)

Source: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html#Style

---

To replace the icon with a logo, specify your application logo in the manifest file with the android:logo attribute, then call setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(true) in your activity.

Source: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-3.0.html#api

Answer 2

It appears that:

• android:logo is available in API Level 10, but not API Level 8
• using android:logo without android:icon does not set the application icon in the app drawer

My hunch is that "logo" refers to a company logo instead of an application icon.