How to Change App Icons in Android Phone?

Android is the most popular operating system for mobile phones with Android 12 has recently been launched. The highlighted feature of the latest update is that it is more personal and safer. There is no doubt Android provides a lot of helpful personalization and customization features. However, Google has slightly changed the way to customize app icons in the latest version. Although there is no option to pick up the shape of the icon on Android 12, you can still apply different colors and themes to the icons. Continue reading if you want to know how to customize app icons in Android 12.

Related: Learn how to change app icons size in Windows?

Change App Icons in Android

Besides using the in-built features, you can use launcher apps to customize the app icons. Below are some of the changes you can do:

• Change color of the icons
• Adjust icons size and shape
• Customize app icon text
• Change the shape of the icons and folders

Let us explain these options in detail in the following sections.

1. Change Color of Icons for Google Apps

Google has introduced an updated app, ‘Wallpaper & style’ for the customization on Android 12. The ‘Wallpaper & style’ app provides various options to customize your Android 12 screen and icons. However, you have to enable ‘Themed icons’ feature first which is disabled by default to customize icons. Follow the instructions below.

• Press the blank area of your screen until a pop-up menu appears. Three options will appear: ‘Home settings,’ ‘Widgets,’ and ‘Wallpaper & style.’ Tap on ‘Wallpaper & style.’
• The next screen shows customization options like ‘Change wallpaper’ or switch on the ‘Dark theme.’ You can choose ‘Wallpaper colors’ or ‘Basic colors.’ Scroll down to see the remaining options.
• Turn on ‘Themed icons.’

• Bring the home screen, and you will see that all the Google native apps have changed their colors according to ‘Wallpaper colors’ or ‘Basic colors’ whichever is selected.
• If you want to give a specific color of choice to the icons, then select “Basic colors” and choose your desired color.
• These settings will apply only to the Google suite of apps.

2. Change Icon Size and Spacing

Mobile phone users like different icon sizes due to various reasons. Some prefer a large size for each icon, while others may love to have many icons on the screen no matter how small they are. Android 12 provides an easy way to do that through its newly upgraded ‘Wallpaper & style’ app. Android 12 simplifies this process by introducing the ‘App grid,’ which presents the options like ‘5×5′, 4×4’, ‘4×5’, ‘3×3’, and ‘2×2’. These two numbers define the number of icons that will appear horizontally and vertically on the screen. If you reduce the number of icons for any direction, the size of the icon will increase and corresponding spacing as well. Similarly, increasing the number of icons for any dimension will reduce the size of the icons. There are limits to how small or how large an icon can be.

• Touch any blank part of the screen, and a menu will appear with three choices. Choose “Wallpaper & style” from the list.
• Scroll down and tap the hash (#) sign in front of “App grid.”
• Choose your desired settings and see the preview. Once you are happy with the option, hit the ‘Apply’ button. Go back to the home screen and check out the new arrangement.

Change Icons with 3^rd Party Launcher Apps

Android 12 no more gives the option to pick the shape of the icon for your apps. It is anticipated that this feature might come in the later updates. To change the shape of the icons on Android, third-party apps are currently available and ‘Nova Launcher’ is one of them. ‘Nova Launcher’ is packed with up-to-date launcher features available to all Android phones. Launchers are apps that replace the ‘Home screen’ of your Android phone with customization options. With the integration of 3^rd party icon theme packages, ‘Nova Launcher’ provides thousands of icon shapes to choose from. You can change the size of the icons too. With ‘Nova Launcher’ on your phone, you will never get bored with the same icons on your Android phone.

Install ‘Nova Launcher’ from Google Play store and launch the app on your Android phone. The home screen will display the primary features.

However, ‘Nova Launcher” must be the ‘Default home app’ on your phone. If not, it will display a notification which you can tap and then select ‘Nova7’ as your default home app.

3. Change Icon Size and Text

• On the ‘Home screen,’ you will find controls to change many parameters like ‘Desktop grid,’ similar to the native Android ‘App grid’ but with more flexibility.
• Tap on ‘Icon layout’ to access the controls to change the icon size.
• Move the slider to change the size of the icons.
• You can change the color and size of the icon labels as well. Move the respective slider to increase or decrease the size.
• Tap in front of ‘Color’ to choose the color. Disable the ‘Managed by Nova’ option to select your color.
• Once done, click the tick to confirm and apply the settings.

4. Change Icon Shape in Android

• Select ‘Look & feel’ from the main screen of the ‘Nova Launcher.’ The next screen will come up with a load of features to customize the look of your phone.
• Tap on ‘Icon style’ on top of the list of menus. Try different icon shapes under the label ‘Icon shape.’ Various shapes are available like ‘Flower,’ ‘Rounded square’ and others. You can customize them too.

• Touch the ‘Icon theme’ title at the top if you are not happy with the system shapes. It will show two items – ‘System’ and ‘Get more themes’ and go for ‘Get more themes.’ It will launch ‘Google Play’ with a list of icon theme packs. Please choose the one you like and install it. Some are paid, and others are free. Icon theme packs are usually large. Make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi or mobile internet with a good plan.
• Once installation is done. Go back to ‘Nova Launcher’ and open the ‘Icon theme.’ Tap the label ‘Icon theme,’ and you will see the name of the icon theme pack you installed previously in the list. Choose it and utilize its features.

Related: How to change Launchpad icon size in Mac?

5. Change Folder Icons

‘Nova Launcher’ gives the flexibility to change the folder icons too. If icons are bundled into the folder, then folder icons are mainly visible on the screen. To change the folder icons, follow the steps below.

• Find ‘Folders’ on the ‘Nova Settings’ menu. Tap it. You will see a few options to customize folder icons.
• Touch on ‘Folder icon appearance.’ It will display various styles and shapes for the folder icon. You can set the color, outline, and transparency.
• Exit or minimize the app and see the result.

Final Words

Unlike Apple iOS in iPhone, there are lot of options available to customize app icons in Android smartphones. You can change the color, size, text and shape to keep the home screen as per your convenience. Though you can do some basic stuffs with the default ‘Wallpaper & style’ app, you need a launcher app for getting additional options. instead of Nova Launcher app we have explained above, you can get icon packs and custom themes from different apps  to change the appearance of the icons in Android phones.