Google Forces Themed Icons on Android—No More Holdouts Like TikTok

Google will be forcing developers to modify their app icons soon, in an effort to make every app on Android themeable. Which is something that Google should have did years ago, when Material You was introduced.

Themed icons first debuted in Android 13, and while many apps have supported it now, there are still a few outliers – looking at you, TikTok. But, Google is now changing this by making support for Themed Icons mandatory by automatically generating themed icons if the app doesn’t provide them.

This is part of the new Google Play Store policy that was updated today, requiring developers to legally grant users the right to modify their app icons color. Of course, this only applies to apps on the Google Play Store. So if you use the Samsung Galaxy App Store or another option, then this isn’t required.

Google added automatic themed icons in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1

With the launch of the first beta for Android 16 QPR2 last month, Google did announce that Android will be able to automatically generate themed icons for apps that don’t provide one. While this is still in beta, we do expect that Android 16 QPR2 will be released around December of this year.

Currently, this is a toggle that the user can enable, to theme all of the apps. Though they do still stand out a bit. Because the apps that are being automatically themed, only get a “color filter algorithm” using the wallpaper and colors you chose for your theme.

Of course, if you’re one that is not a big fan of the themed icons in Android, you can still keep this feature off. Which is something I currently do, since there are few apps that don’t support theming right now. That’s the beauty of Android, choice.