How to add a Splash Screen

This article covers how to add a splash screen to your application if you don't want to use Uno.Resizetizer to handle your Splash Screen.

Tip

The complete source code that goes along with this guide is available in the unoplatform/Uno.Samples GitHub repository - SplashScreenSample

Prerequisites


Tip

For a step-by-step guide to installing the prerequisites for your preferred IDE and environment, consult the Get Started guide.

[!INFO] If you're using the Uno Platform 4.8 or later you already have the Uno.Resizetizer package installed for you and it can handle the Splash screen in a more automated way. See this article for more information.

Step 1 - Shared splash Screen image resources

  1. Prepare the images of your splash screen in different resolution, eg:

    Name Width Height
    SplashScreen.scale-100.png 216 148
    SplashScreen.scale-125.png 270 185
    SplashScreen.scale-150.png 324 222
    SplashScreen.scale-200.png 432 296
    SplashScreen.scale-300.png 648 444
    SplashScreen.scale-400.png 864 592

    Refer to this table for the different scales required.

    You can also just provide a single image named as SplashScreen.png without the scale-000 qualifier.

    Note

    Regardless if you provide a single image or multiple images, you would always refer to this image as SplashScreen.png.

  2. Add these images under the Assets\ folder of the MyApp Class Library project, right-click on each image, go to Properties and set their build action as Content.

Step 2 - UWP

  1. In the .UWP project, delete the old splash screen file SplashScreen.scale-200.png under the Asset\ folder.

    Note

    Do not confuse this with the one from .Shared project.

  2. Open the Package.appxmanifest and navigate to Visual Assets > SplashScreen.

  3. Make sure the value for Preview Images > Splash Screen is set to:

    Assets\SplashScreen.png

    uwp-splash-screen

Step 3 - Android

  1. In the .Droid project, open Resources/values/Styles.xml, and add an <item> under the AppTheme style.

    <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/splash</item>

  2. Navigate to Resources/drawable, and create a XML file named splash.xml:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <!-- background color -->
        <color android:color="#101010"/>
    </item>
    <item>
    <!-- splash image -->
        <bitmap android:src="@drawable/assets_splashscreen"
                android:tileMode="disabled"
                android:gravity="center" />
    </item>
</layer-list>
    Important

    Before Uno.UI 4.5, the @drawable/assets_splashscreen source should be @drawable/splashscreen. See the breaking changes section of that release.

  3. Make sure splash.xml is added as an AndroidResource in the Droid project file : [Project-name].Droid.csproj. This is not always done automatically, especially if splash.xml is created and added outside the IDE.

    <ItemGroup>
  <AndroidResource Include="Resources\drawable\splash.xml" />
</ItemGroup>
    Tip

    After modifying splash.xml, you may run into errors like these while trying to debug:

    Resources\drawable-mdpi\SplashScreen.png : error APT2126: file not found.
Resources\drawable-hdpi\SplashScreen.png : error APT2126: file not found.

    Simply rebuild the .Droid project to get rid of these error.

Step 4 - iOS

  1. In the .iOS project, delete the old splash screen files:

    • Resources\SplashScreen@2x.png
    • Resources\SplashScreen@3x.png
    • LaunchScreen.storyboard

  2. Create a new StoryBoard named LaunchScreen.storyboard:

    • Right-click the .iOS project > Add > New Item ...
    • Visual C# > Apple > Empty Storyboard

  3. In the Toolbox window, drag and drop a View Controller and then an ImageView inside the View Controller. Enable the Is initial View Controller-flag on the View Controller.

    viewcontroller-imageview

  4. To have an image fill the screen, set your constraints as below

    ios-constraints

  5. Set the Content Mode to Aspect Fit

    ios-content-fit

  6. In the Properties > Storyboard Document window, select the Can be Launch Screen checkbox.

    can-be-launch

  7. Close the designer and open the .storyboard file.

  8. Add your image path to the Image View

    <imageView ... image="Assets/SplashScreen">

  9. Open to info.plist and update the UILaunchStoryboardName value to LaunchScreen.

    Tip

    iOS caches the splash screen to improve the launch time, even across re-installs. In order to see the actual changes made, you need to restart the iPhone or simulator. Alternatively, you can rename the CFBundleIdentifier in info.plist incrementally (eg: MyApp1 -> MyApp2) before each build.

Step 5 - WebAssembly

  1. In the .WASM project, navigate to WasmScripts/AppManifest.js

  2. Add your splash screen image

    var UnoAppManifest = {
    splashScreenImage: "Assets/SplashScreen.scale-200.png",
    splashScreenColor: "#0078D7",
    displayName: "SplashScreenSample"
}
    Note

    Currently, you need to set an explicit scale for the splash screen image.

The splashScreenColor property allows you to set the background color for the splash screen. If you want to make the splash screen theme-aware, you can omit this property or set it to "transparent".

If you use the theme-aware splash screen background, you can also set the darkThemeBackgroundColor and lightThemeBackgroundColor properties to adjust the background color for each theme. Default values are "#202020" for dark theme and "#F3F3F3" for light theme.

Table of scales

Scale UWP iOS Android
100 scale-100 @1x mdpi
125 scale-125 N/A N/A
150 scale-150 N/A hdpi
200 scale-200 @2x xhdpi
300 scale-300 @3x xxhdpi
400 scale-400 N/A xxxhdpi

Get the complete code

See the completed sample on GitHub: SplashScreenSample


Help! I'm having trouble

Tip

If you ran into difficulties with any part of this guide, you can: