Android 13 themed icons explained

What Android 13 themed icons are, how the monochrome layer works, and how to generate it alongside your adaptive icon so your app follows the system color.

Since Android 13, the system can tint app icons to match the wallpaper and the user’s theme (“Material You”). For your app to participate you need a monochrome layer.

What the monochrome layer is

An adaptive icon has three layers:

background — background (color or image).
foreground — your full-color logo.
monochrome — your logo in a single tint (silhouette), which the system recolors.

How to generate it with AppIconGen

Upload your logo (a transparent background works best for a clean silhouette).
Select the Android platform.
Download the ZIP: it includes ic_launcher_monochrome.png per density and the ic_launcher.xml already containing the <monochrome> tag.

<adaptive-icon xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <background android:drawable="@mipmap/ic_launcher_background" />
    <foreground android:drawable="@mipmap/ic_launcher_foreground" />
    <monochrome android:drawable="@mipmap/ic_launcher_monochrome" />
</adaptive-icon>

Tip

Keep the logo inside the safe zone (the central 72×72 dp of the 108 dp canvas) so it isn’t clipped by any mask.