Usage of mipmap launcher icons before Android 4.2?

Question

I\'m using Android Asset Studio to generate my launcher icon and I\'ve seen that the output is now creating mipmap folders instead of drawable folders.

Since mipmap

Answer 1

Mipmap folder support was added in Android SDK 11 or Honeycomb. This means that you can use the Mipmap folder from Android version 3.0 and above, including version 4.2. This is most official documentation I can find about this topic.

Answer 2

I have tried mipmap folder for launcher icon on a real device API level 8 and it works there too.

Answer 3

I was not able to find official documentation that stated this will work on Android versions older than 4.2. However these mipmap resource folders started appearing in apk files that shipped with Honeycomb, so anything newer than that will have support it would be safe to assume.

I have tested an app using only mipmaps for the launcher icon on physical devices and had no issues on versions 4.0.3 and higher. I have not tested on Honeycomb, Gingerbread and older.

For more information about mipmaps in Android Studio, take a look at this site:

https://androidbycode.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/goodbye-launcher-drawables-hello-mipmaps/