How to create a simple Splash Screen for your Android app?

In continuation to our how-to tutorials on Android Studio, today we’ll see how to create a Start/Splash screen for your Android application. For the demonstration purpose, we will create a very simple splash screen that will load an image at the start and removes it after a specific time. If you are new to Android Studio, then quickly jump to our guide : Getting Started with Android Studio to learn about the new development layout.

Ok! Let start now!

Step 1: Define the Start screen layout.

Jump to activity_main.xml file located under ‘res > layout‘ and paste the below code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="match_parent">
 <ImageView android:id="@+id/splashscreen" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
 android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:src="@drawable/splash"
 android:layout_gravity="center|top" android:contentDescription="@string/splash"/>
 <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@string/hello_world" android:layout_gravity="center"/>
</LinearLayout>

Once done, remember to create appropriate ‘id’ resource and ‘string’ resource via the properties window.

Step 2: Get ready with your Start/Splash screen image. For the demonstration, I created a ‘Techglimpse Image’. Well, that’s not so impressive, so you can create your own image.

Step 3: Create a ‘drawable‘ resource directory by right-clicking on the ‘res‘ folder. Name it as drawable and Resource type as ‘drawable’.

Step 4: Copy the image to the project’s drawable location. In my case, it looks as below,

//localhome//henry//AndroidStudioProjects//StartScreen//StartScreen//src//main//res//drawable

Step 5: Add a handler to activity class.

private static final int STOPSPLASH = 0;
 //time in milliseconds
 private static final long SPLASHTIME = 3000;

 private ImageView splash;


 //handler for splash screen
 private Handler splashHandler = new Handler() {
 /* (non-Javadoc)
 * @see android.os.Handler#handleMessage(android.os.Message)
 */
 @Override
 public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
 switch (msg.what) {
 case STOPSPLASH:
 //remove SplashScreen from view
 splash.setVisibility(View.GONE);

 break;
 }
 super.handleMessage(msg);
 }
 };

Checkout the inline comments for the explanation.

Step 6: Make changes to Oncreate method to create a new message and send it delayed to the handler:

public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
 super.onCreate(icicle);
 setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
 splash = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.splashscreen);
 Message msg = new Message();
 msg.what = STOPSPLASH;
 splashHandler.sendMessageDelayed(msg, SPLASHTIME);
 }

and that’s it! Run the app and you should see the splash screen staying for few seconds in the beginning.

Download the source code and apk here.