App Icon Disappeared!
If we want to use an app in our mobile devices, we click the app icon of the app we want to use and the system will open that app for us. What if the app icon is not available in the launcher or app drawer, how would you open an app then or is it even possible to make an app icon disappear from the launcher.
Let’s find out.
App Launcher Icon Disappeared!
During one feature development, I was experimenting with the code in the AndroidManifest.xml file and trying different launch behavior of the app, then suddenly the app icon was gone missing and I looked for it carefully in the app launcher and app drawer but the app icon was nowhere to be found.
I tried reinstalling the app from the apk, but it was saying the app is already installed. When I tried to run the app using Android Studio, the app was launched, still the app icon was not present in the launcher.
It was a very strange behavior which I have never experienced before or even thought of it, why would it be even possible or are there any use cases for such behavior as if we can’t see the app icon why would we even want such an app in our devices.
In the Setting’s Application Manager, I could find the app as in settings there are all the apps present but why is the app showing such behavior. It was so Bizare.
Findings
In the AndroidManifest.xml file, we mention all the important attributes regarding our app like the activities, broadcasts, launch screen, permissions etc. There we can define this kind of behaviour if we want our app icon to disappear from the launcher.
The <intent-filter> looks like this which contains which activity to launch when the app icon is clicked
Just add the <data> to the intent-filter, e.g.
Compile and run it. Bingo!. Your app will run and function as before but the app icon will not be available in the launcher.
