Interactive home screen icons

Question

I searched this topic and couldn't find anything on it. Is there a way to make interactive icons on the home screen? for example there is "clean master" that after you click an icon of it, it make an animation. Also there is this facebook thing where you get a message and an icon with the profile picture of the one that messaged you pops up.

I can't figure out or find a way to implement this kind of stuff..

I would be happy if any one could give me some kind of direction..

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The general answer if you want activity on the home screen is to implement a widget.

http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/widgets.html

Answer 2

for example there is "clean master" that after you click an icon of it, it make an animation.

The icon doesn't animate. When you click on it, a new transparent Activity opens which the icon at the same position where the original icon is. The animations happens entirely on the activity.

The activity is transparent so you get a feel that the icon itself is animating. If you notice carefully, you can find the navigation bar coming up if you tap somewhere while its animating.

Also there is this facebook thing where you get a message and an icon with the profile picture of the one that messaged you pops up.

It is know as Chat Heads. You ca create your own, but it an take some time and is a bit involving. If you are a beginner and/or you are in a hurry, you can use this library. I have used it and it works perfectly .