Android will soon theme every app icon, and Google Play won’t let developers opt out

App icons rarely look similar unless they were designed by the same person or company. This makes them easy to distinguish from one another but can also leave home screens looking messy. To solve this, Google introduced the Themed Icons feature in Android 13, allowing users to change app icon colors to match their system theme. Support for this feature is currently opt-in, and many developers choose not to participate for various reasons. However, thanks to upcoming changes in the Android OS and Google Play, developers will no longer be able to prevent their app icons from being themed.

Currently, developers have to supply a monochromatic version of their app icon for Android to theme. This isn’t a huge technical undertaking, but there are several reasons why many developers don’t do this. For one, when all icons share a similar color palette, it becomes harder for a specific app to stand out. Secondly, some icons, particularly for games, feature complex designs that don’t translate well to a single color. Lastly, some companies feel that maintaining their icon’s original design is important for brand identity, as their logo appears unmodified elsewhere. As a result, many Android users who enable Themed Icons have to deal with a hodgepodge of themed and unthemed icons on their home screen.

With the release of Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1 last month, however, Google announced that Android will automatically generate themed icons for apps that don’t already provide one. According to Google, the system will apply a “color filtering algorithm to your existing launcher icon to render it in a monochrome style, allowing it to integrate with the user’s chosen theme.”

Notably, Google’s announcement didn’t mention if developers would have a way to opt out of this change. It also didn’t address the potential branding or legal issues that could arise from modifying a company’s icon without its consent. The latter issue has now been addressed with a change to the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA), the legally binding contract between developers and Google. In order to distribute apps on Google Play, developers must agree to the DDA, which was updated today to add the following clause:

“5.3 You grant to the user a nonexclusive, worldwide, and perpetual license to perform, modify color of, or add themes to, your Product icons, display (including with the color and theme modifications), and use the Product.”

In an email to developers, Google stated this change will go into effect immediately for all new accounts and on October 15, 2025, for existing developers.

This means developers on the Play Store must now permit users to not only theme their icons but also display the modified icons in screenshots and recordings. While custom icon packs have allowed users to do this for years, displaying a modified brand icon often violated a company’s brand guidelines. This could have subjected users to legal takedown requests. With this change to the DDA, however, users now have the express right to modify the icons of apps downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Thanks to Mateus R. Costa on Telegram for the tip!