Parse Android SDK: Customise the Push Notification Icon

If you are using the Parse Android SDK in your mobile app, you are able to customise the push notification icon by updating your AndroidManifest.xml file. This method also applies if you are using Parse in a Cordova / PhoneGap app.

I’ve used this technique to customise the push notification icon in my Cordova app. I started by opening up the platforms/android/AndroidManifest.xml file. In between the <application ...></application> tags (preferable before the closing tag), I added the following line:

See the gist on github.

You can then drop in icons into the platforms/android/res/drawable-{$SIZE}/ folders (I named them push_icon.png to match the code above). The following icon sizes are needed in each of the specific folders:

• platforms/android/res/drawable-mdpi/: 24px × 24px
• platforms/android/res/drawable-hdpi/: 36px × 36px
• platforms/android/res/drawable-xhdpi/: 48px × 48px
• platforms/android/res/drawable-xxhdpi/: 72px × 72px
• platforms/android/res/drawable-xxxhdpi/: 96px × 96px

Note that the icons must be flat, in white, and transparent. For best practices and guidance, visit the Android Notification Design documentation.

You can take a look at my complete AndroidManifest.xml file here. It will show you where you can add the above code if you’re stuck.