NativePHP Mobile Icon

A NativePHP Mobile plugin for app icons that goes beyond a single icon.png: per-platform primary icons, iOS 18 light/dark/tinted appearances, Android adaptive & themed icons, and named alternate icons you can switch on a schedule (Christmas, Black Friday, …) — all driven by one config file.

⚠️ Read this first — app icons are not splash screens. The home-screen icon is owned by the OS and baked into the app at build time. Unlike a splash animation, you cannot download a new icon and apply it at runtime. Runtime switching only works among variants you bundled at build time; adding a new one needs a rebuild + app release. See Platform Constraints.

---

Requirements

• PHP 8.2+ with ext-gd (image generation)
• NativePHP Mobile 3.0+
• Minimum platforms: Android 8 (API 26), iOS 18.0

---

Installation

composer require s2br/nativephp-mobile-icon
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=mobile-icon-config
php artisan native:plugin:register s2br/nativephp-mobile-icon

(native:plugin:register wires it into your NativeServiceProvider; publish the provider first with php artisan vendor:publish --tag=nativephp-plugins-provider if you haven't.)

---

What it does

Capability	iOS	Android
Per-platform primary icon	✅	✅
Light / dark / tinted appearances (iOS 18)	✅	—
Adaptive icon (foreground/background)	—	✅
Themed/monochrome icon (Android 13+)	—	✅
Named alternate icons (bundled)	✅	✅
Scheduled switching (date/season)	✅*	✅*
Remote/downloadable icons (no rebuild)	❌	❌

* among build-time-bundled variants only — see constraints.

---

Where to put your icons

Save your icon files in your app's resources/icons/ directory, and reference them with a path relative to the project root (resolved via base_path() at build time — the same convention the splashscreen plugin uses for resources/animations/):

your-app/
└── resources/
    └── icons/                ← create this folder
        ├── app-ios.png
        ├── app-android.png
        └── christmas-ios.png …

MOBILE_ICON_IOS="resources/icons/app-ios.png"
MOBILE_ICON_ANDROID="resources/icons/app-android.png"

Image requirements:

Use	Size	Transparency
iOS primary (default.ios)	1024×1024 PNG	Opaque — Apple rejects transparent app icons
iOS dark / tinted appearance	1024×1024 PNG	Transparency expected
Android adaptive foreground	1024×1024 PNG	Transparency expected (keep art in the centre safe zone)
Alternate variants	1024×1024 PNG	Match the platform's primary rule

Any location under the project root works, but resources/icons/ is the recommended spot. A missing file surfaces as a build-time warning from the plugin's validate().

---

Configuration

Everything lives in config/mobile-icon.php.

Primary icon (per platform)

'default' => [
    'ios' => 'resources/icons/app-ios.png',       // 1024×1024 PNG, no transparency
    'android' => 'resources/icons/app-android.png',
],

iOS 18 appearances

'ios_appearance' => [
    'light' => 'resources/icons/app-light.png',
    'dark' => 'resources/icons/app-dark.png',
    'tinted' => 'resources/icons/app-tinted.png',
],

Android adaptive / themed

'android_adaptive' => [
    'foreground' => 'resources/icons/fg.png',
    'background' => '#079F3D',                 // hex color OR a PNG path
    'monochrome' => 'resources/icons/mono.png', // optional, powers themed icons
],

Alternate icon variants

'variants' => [
    'christmas' => [
        'ios' => 'resources/icons/christmas-ios.png',
        'android' => 'resources/icons/christmas-android.png',
    ],
    'black_friday' => [
        'ios' => 'resources/icons/bf-ios.png',
        'android' => 'resources/icons/bf-android.png',
    ],
],

Schedule

'schedule' => [
    ['variant' => 'christmas', 'from' => '12-24', 'to' => '12-26'],   // recurs yearly
    ['variant' => 'black_friday', 'from' => '2026-11-27', 'to' => '2026-11-28'], // that year only
],

Dates use MM-DD (recurs every year) or YYYY-MM-DD (specific year); a full-date entry wins over a recurring one — the same rule as the splashscreen plugin.

---

Runtime API

use S2BR\MobileIcon\Facades\MobileIcon;

MobileIcon::set('christmas'); // switch to a bundled variant
MobileIcon::reset();          // back to the primary icon
MobileIcon::supported();      // is runtime switching available?
MobileIcon::current();        // active variant

After applying, native dispatches S2BR\MobileIcon\Events\AppIconChanged (variant, success).

use Livewire\Attributes\On;

#[On('native:'.\S2BR\MobileIcon\Events\AppIconChanged::class)]
public function onIconChanged(string $variant, bool $success): void {}

JS:

import { MobileIcon } from './vendor/.../mobileIcon.js';
MobileIcon.set('christmas');
const off = MobileIcon.onChanged(({ variant, success }) => console.log(variant, success));

---

App Icon Badge

Show a notification count on the app icon (the red number).

use S2BR\MobileIcon\Facades\MobileIcon;

MobileIcon::setBadge(3);                            // show "3"
MobileIcon::setBadge(3, 'S2BR', '3 new messages');  // custom Android notification text
MobileIcon::setBadge(0);                            // clear
MobileIcon::clearBadge();                           // clear

MobileIcon.setBadge(3);
MobileIcon.clearBadge();

Platform reality — read this before relying on it:

• iOS sets the exact number via UNUserNotificationCenter.setBadgeCount. It requires badge/notification permission (NativePHP's push enrollment requests it). iOS never decrements the badge on its own — call setBadge()/clearBadge() as the user reads notifications to keep it in sync.
• Android has no API to put an arbitrary number on the launcher icon. The badge is driven by a single quiet local notification this plugin posts, so:
  • Supporting launchers (Samsung, Xiaomi, …) show the count; stock/Pixel shows a dot.
  • It needs the POST_NOTIFICATIONS runtime permission on Android 13+ (declared by the plugin; you still request it at runtime).
  • The badge implies a real, silent notification sits in the shade — pass title/body to make it meaningful. setBadge(0)/clearBadge() cancels it.

So: iOS = exact number; Android = a dot, or a count on launchers that support it.

---

Platform Constraints

These are OS limitations, not plugin shortcomings — know them before designing around dynamic icons:

• Build-time only. Every variant must be compiled into the app. There is no way to download and apply a brand-new icon at runtime on either platform.
• iOS shows a system alert (“You have changed the icon for …”) on every setAlternateIconName call. There is no App-Store-safe way to suppress it. Plan your UX around one deliberate switch, not frequent flips.
• Android switches by enabling an <activity-alias>, which typically restarts the app and can behave differently per launcher/OEM; pinned shortcuts may not follow.

If you need a splash that updates remotely without an app release, that's the splashscreen plugin — icons can't work that way.

---

How It Works

• copy_assets validates your source PNGs.
• pre_compile generates per-platform icons with GD, writes the iOS asset catalog / Android adaptive resources, registers alternate icons (iOS CFBundleAlternateIcons, Android <activity-alias>), and embeds the schedule for on-launch resolution.
• Runtime bridge functions apply a variant via setAlternateIconName (iOS) / PackageManager alias toggling (Android).

---

Status & Roadmap

This is an early, structurally complete plugin. Build-time orchestration, the runtime bridge, config, and the GD pipeline are in place; some native write-back seams (Info.plist merge, AndroidManifest alias injection, exact build paths) are marked with TODO(on-device) and need verification against a real NativePHP build.

• MVP: per-platform icons + iOS appearances + Android adaptive/themed (no runtime jank).
• Phase 2: scheduled switching among bundled variants, with the constraints above clearly surfaced.

Contributions and ideas welcome.

---

Running tests

composer install
composer test

---

Credits

• Israel Pereira

License

MIT.