Where does Android store desktop icons?

Question

Once an app is installed, where android store icons shown on app drawer? in which path? I tried to remove it programmatically but without success. An alternative should be to refresh the app drawer. Possible on rooted phones?

Answer 1

With the following code you will get icon and name for running applications, modify it to get normal applications etc.

c is your application Context.

ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) c
            .getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<RunningAppProcessInfo> rapiList = getRunningAppProcesses(c); //running or whatever
RunningAppProcessInfo rapi = rapiList.get(i); //iterate

Drawable icon = c.getPackageManager().getApplicationIcon(rapi.processName);
String name = c.getPackageManager().getApplicationLabel(c.getPackageManager().getApplicationInfo(rapi.processName, 128)).toString();

So the icons are part of the application process, not sure you can delete them, maybe you can modify your launcher (get a custom one)

Answer 2

You can study the source code at this url:

https://github.com/WouterSpaans/APK-Edit--Java-

This tool can edit app icons.