Google Play icon design specifications

Apps & Games on Google Play are adopting a new icon system to better fit diverse developer artwork to Google Play's various UI layouts, form factors, and devices, as well as to bring consistency and a cleaner look to Google Play.

Uniformed shapes are visually more appealing and easier to digest. They help users focus on the artwork, as opposed to the shape. They fix alignment issues caused by random open space to better present surrounding information, such as the title, rating, and price.

Freeform – original format
Uniformed – new format

This page describes the guidelines you should follow when creating assets for your app's listing on Google Play. For example, because Google Play dynamically renders rounded corners and drop shadows for your app icons, you should omit them from your original assets.

Important: If instead you're interested in learning more about creating APK launcher icons, which are separate from the Google Play icons described on this page, see the resources below:

  • Android Adaptive Icons
    Follow these APK icon guidelines to learn how to create adaptive launcher icons introduced in Android 8.0 (API level 26).
  • Product icons
    Discover Material Design principles for product icons, including guidelines for icon design, shapes, specs, and treatment.

Creating assets

This section describes some guidelines you should follow when creating visual assets for your app on Google Play.

Attributes

Icon artwork can populate the entire asset space, or you can design and position artwork elements such as logos onto the keyline grid. When placing your artwork, use keylines as a guideline, not a hard rule.

When creating your artwork, ensure it conforms to the following:

  • Final size: 512px x 512px
  • Format: 32-bit PNG
  • Color space: sRGB
  • Max file size: 1024KB
  • Shape: Full square – Google Play dynamically handles masking. Radius will be equivalent to 20% of icon size.
  • Shadow: None – Google Play dynamically handles shadows. See 'Shadows' section below on including shadows within your artwork.
Total asset size
Product icon keylines

After the asset is uploaded, Google Play dynamically applies the rounded mask and shadow to ensure consistency across all app/game icons.

On the left-hand side is your new icon asset. The following three images on the right-hand side show Google Play dynamic processing of the icon.

Sizing

Utilize the full asset space as the background when dealing with minimalistic artwork.

Use the keylines as guides for positioning artwork elements (i.e. logos).

Your full bleed artwork (final asset)
End result with shadows and rounded corners dynamically applied by Google Play

Don’t force your logo or artwork to fit the full asset space. Instead, utilize the keyline grid.

Don't force drastic brand & artwork transformation to full bleed
Place freeform icon artwork on keylines instead

Illustrated artwork typically works well as a full bleed icon.

Don't scale down illustrated artwork onto keylines
Utilize full asset space so your artwork occupies the entire icon

These are examples of icon elements that mislead users and violate Play’s Developer policies. Avoid all of the following practices, and refer to Google Play’s metadata policy and user ratings, reviews, and installs policy for further guidance.

Don't use text or graphic elements to indicate ranking
Don't use text or graphic elements to promote deals or incentivize installs
Don't use text or graphic elements to indicate participation in a Play program
Don't use text or graphic elements that can mislead users

Shadows

Google Play will dynamically add a drop shadow around the final icon once uploaded.

When adding shadows inside your icon artwork, consider consistency with the Android platform by following Google Material guidelines.

Don't add drop shadows to your final asset
You can create shadows and lighting within the artwork

Corner radius

Google Play dynamically applies corner radius. This ensures consistency when the icon is resized across different UI layouts. Radius will be equivalent to 20% of icon size.

Don't round the edges of your final asset
Fill your entire asset with artwork when possible

Brand adaptation

If shapes are a critical part of a logo, do not force the artwork to full bleed. Instead place it on the new keyline grid.

From left to right: original icon asset, new icon asset (recommended adaptation), new icon rendered on Google Play.

If possible, pick a background color for your asset that's appropriate for your brand and doesn't include any transparency. Transparent assets will display the background color of Google Play UI.

From left to right: original icon asset, new icon asset (recommended adaptation), new icon rendered on Google Play.

If there is no distinct shape around a logo defining it, place it on a full bleed background.

From left to right: original icon asset, new icon asset (recommended adaptation), new icon rendered on Google Play.

If your artwork is flexible enough, consider tweaking it to fully utilize the asset size. If that's not possible, revert to placing the logo on a keyline grid.

From left to right: original icon asset, new icon asset (recommended adaptation), new icon rendered on Google Play.

Legacy mode

Original icon assets that have not been updated per the new specifications will eventually be migrated to legacy mode and scaled down 75% to the keyline grid size (512 * 0.75 = 384px).

Uploading an icon per the original specification will not be allowed as of May 2019. See more details on timelines.

Original icon assets will be automatically turned into legacy mode assets and be scaled down 75% to new keyline grid.

Instructions for API users

Migration dates are slightly different for API users, but achieve the same end result of migrating all icons to either the new specification or "legacy mode" by June 24, 2019.

Before June 17, 2019, developers must use the Play Console to apply the new specification to their icons. All calls to Edits.images: upload will apply whichever specification is configured in the Play Console. There is no way to apply the new specification via API. The Edits.images: upload call may error if the old specification is still applied, and the error message for that specific icon will point you to this specification. After applying a new specification using the Play Console, you can retry the Edits.images: upload call. You may need to retry the call multiple times before it will succeed.

Beginning on June 17, 2019, all API calls to Edits.images: upload will automatically apply the new specification to the icon. Following June 17, 2019, you should only upload icons that are compatible with the new specification.

Download design templates & resources

To get started, download one of the provided asset templates: