What a splash screen does for a website app
A URL app has to load its first page from your server, and a bundled app has to start the WebView; either way there is a moment between the tap and the site. Without a splash screen that moment is a blank white rectangle with your icon in the corner of the task switcher. With one, it is your logo on your brand colour — the same thing the site's header will show a second later — and the app feels like it opened instantly. It is also one of the native touches Google Play reviewers look for when deciding whether a website app is "just a website".
This tool designs that screen: your icon, a solid or gradient background, an optional loader beneath, and the gap between them. The phone frame is a live preview.
Android 12 changed the rules
Since Android 12, the system draws the splash screen itself from the launcher icon and a background colour, and the app cannot show a full-bleed image in that window. The icon is masked to a circle and must fit inside a 240 dp canvas with the artwork in the central 160 dp, or it is cropped. The "Download Android 12 icon" button exports exactly that: your icon, padded so it survives the mask, on your background.
The 1080×1920 image is what older Android versions and custom splash implementations use, and what the builder shows as a branded loading screen inside the app after the system splash. Using both means the launch looks the same on Android 8 and Android 15.
Design notes
- Match the site. Background = your header colour, icon = your logo mark. The splash and the first page should look like one continuous thing.
- Keep it plain. No tagline, no version number, no "loading…" text. It is on screen for under a second.
- Gradient sparingly. A gentle shift between two brand tones reads as polish; a rainbow reads as a template.
- Loader only for URL apps. A bundled app opens too fast to need one.
Splash screens are a Pro feature in the builder, where the same settings are applied to the real app. Use this tool to design and preview first, or to export assets for a project built elsewhere.