Android Studio: Give each variant its own icon

Question

In Android Studio, I want each of my app variants to have its own icon.

I tried various ways, including what is suggested here How to provide different Android app icons for different gradle buildTypes? but it doesn't work

here is what I wrote in the build.graddle file:

 flavorDimensions "marketplaceA"

    productFlavors {
        koanFlavor {
            dimension "marketplaceA"
            resValue "string", "app_name", "Koan"
            manifestPlaceholders = [
                    appIcon: "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
            ]
            minSdkVersion 20
            targetSdkVersion 27
            versionCode 3
            versionName '1.1'
        }
        koanSEFlavor {
            dimension "marketplaceA"
            resValue "string", "app_name", "Koan SE"
            manifestPlaceholders = [
                    appIcon: "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
            ]
            minSdkVersion 20
            targetSdkVersion 27
            versionCode 3
            versionName '1.1'
        }
        } 

And, since I share the same res in every variant:

• I didn't make a res folder for each variant

• I filled the mipmapXXX folder of the main res folder with 2 versions of the xml and png files

but the icon doesn't show up when I run the app in the emulator (weird thing it that it does show only on my shield K1 tablet, every other smartphone I tried doesn't show the icon)

Update:

I just tried adding the mipmapXXX folders to each variant's folders, keeping the exact same name on every resources, only changing the content of the png but still...

Could the problem be related to the contents my launcher.xml?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<adaptive-icon xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <background android:drawable="@drawable/ic_launcher_background" />
    <foreground android:drawable="@drawable/ic_launcher_foreground" />
</adaptive-icon>

In Android studio, when you open the ic_launcher.xml file, you see the icon in the preview tab. Right now I only see the default icon :S

Update II:

The thing is I went for the solution where I put this in build.gradle for each variant

    manifestPlaceholders = [
            appIcon: "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
    ]

and then place two ic_launcher files in the default folder. I had to add in the manifest

 android:icon="${appIcon}"

I think it is a bad solution :(

I'm now trying to go for @W0rmH0le solution but something isn't right

How to I get rid of adaptive icon in favor of my simple icon?

FINAL UPDATE:

Tips from @W0rmH0le and @Derek really helped but here is the information that could have help me a lot to solve my problem:

1. the New -> Image Asset UI in AS is the only way to go and you can use it again and again the try to get to your desired icon

2. Once you finished with the Image Asset UI, do a "Build -> Clean Project" and a "Build -> Rebuild Project"

3. At this stage you'd better use adaptive-icon since the systems your app will run on might turn your icon into something ugly if you don't

4. Since you are using adaptive-icon, don't try to use a background with transparency. The Image Asset UI will display it nicely but transparency is not supported in adaptive icon background

5. Finally, to get the 2 version of icons, I added one icon in the regular process and I went to explorer to copy the mipmapXXX folders into a safe place. Then I added the other icon the regulare way. To finished it, I pasted the saved mipmap folders int the variante folder tree as mentionned by @W0rmH0le

Answer 1

Found an easy way to do that

1. Add your desired images to app->src->main->res inside all of the drawable folders, for this example the images are named x_launcher and y_launcher.

2. If for example you have the flowing flavors inside your app->build.gradle file

productFlavors {
    xFlavor {
        dimension "default"
        signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        manifestPlaceholders = [
                appIcon: "@mipmap/x_launcher",
        ]
    }
    yFlavor {
        dimension "default"
        signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        manifestPlaceholders = [
                appIcon: "@mipmap/y_launcher",
        ]
    }
}

Then your need to change the app->src->main->AndroidManifest.xml line android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher" to android:icon="${appIcon}"

Answer 2

The easiest way to achieve that is creating a new resource folder for each flavor.

For example:

\src
  | 
  | -- \main
  |      |
  |      | --- \res -> Here, you place all default and common icons
  |
  | -- \koanFlavor
  |      |
  |      | --- \res -> Add only the icons that are different from default one
  | 
  | -- \koanSEFlavor 
  |      |
  |      | --- \res -> If you have one icon that are different from main and koanFlavor, you can place here

An observation: Those icons are different but they should share same name.

You don't need to create one folder for every flavor... Even if you have 2 flavors, you don't need to create 2 additional folders (koanFlavor and koanSEFlavor). You can place all icons of one flavor in the main folder. This way, you just need to create one additional folder to support the other flavor.

You also don't need to duplicate all icons.. In the flavor's folder, you should add only those icons that are different from the main folder.

EDIT

Your icon is defined via gradle at:

manifestPlaceholders = [
        appIcon: "@mipmap/ic_launcher"
]

This is ic_laucher is the icon that will be used as Launcher Icon. So, ic_launcher.png is the icon that you should move to specific folders