How to set different label for launcher rather than activity title?

Apparently <intent-filter> can have a label attribute. If it's absent the label is inherited from the parent component (either Activity or Application). So using this, you can set a label for the launcher icon, while still having the Activity with it's own title.

Note that, while this works on emulators, it might not work on real devices, because it depends on the launcher implementation that is used.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/intent-filter-element.html

<activity  android:name=".ui.HomeActivity"  android:label="@string/title_home_activity"  android:icon="@drawable/icon">  <intent-filter android:label="@string/app_name">    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />  </intent-filter></activity>

Side Note: <intent-filter> can also have an icon attribute, but inexplicably it does not override the icon specified in the Activity. This may be important to you if you plan to use the native ActionBar in SDK 11+, which uses Icon and Logo specified on the Activity.

Added Info: The label is being inherited from Activity and not the Application.

 <application        android:allowBackup="true"        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"               android:label="@string/app_name"        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >        <activity            android:name=".StartActivity"            android:label="@string/app_long_name" >            <intent-filter>                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />            </intent-filter>        </activity>

In this case, app_long_name will be displayed with launcher icon, if we do not put label inside as mentioned above.

I was looking for the same thing and here's what worked for me.

<activity android:name="MainActivity" android:label="@string/app_short_name"><intent-filter>    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /></intent-filter>

This will give a short name to your application launcher icon.

To add a larger name to the application bar you just have to add:

this.setTitle(getResources().getString(R.string.app_name));

to your main activity java file.

Solution of Mark Renouf fails to me (using Nexus 4 and Android 4.4). It fails when using shortcuts, shortcuts use the main activity label instead of the app name. I saw some apps like GMail and Google Keep that works fine. But when you open them, I notice its like a moment between the title is blank and the title appears (which seems better than the app name flashing before setting the title using setTitle()).

So here is the best solution I found:

Create a style where the ActionBar does not show the title/label:

<style name="NoActionBarTitle" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">    <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/NoActionBarTitle.ActionBar</item></style><style name="NoActionBarTitle.ActionBar" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionBar">    <item name="android:displayOptions">showHome|useLogo</item></style>

I'm using a navigation drawer and using a logo (because I use a logo and an icon for my app). You can use whatever but don't use showTitle. Then in the AndroidManifest.xml, set the theme for the MainActivity:

<activity    android:name="com.xx.xxx.MainActivity"    android:logo="@drawable/ic_icon_padding"    android:theme="@style/NoActionBarTitle">    <intent-filter>        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />    </intent-filter></activity>

Then, in the onCreate() method of the MainActivity, set the title of your Action Bar:

getActionBar().setTitle(R.string.your_title);

After it, you can call:

getActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(true);

Tricky but worth.