Splash Screen

This core feature gives the ability to configure and control the platform's splash screen while your web application is launching.

• Splash Screen
  • Supported Platforms
  • Platform Splash Screen Image Configuration
    • Example Configuration
    • Android-specific Information
      • Example Android Configuration
    • iOS-specific Information
      • Launch Storyboard Images
        • Designing Launch Storyboard Images
        • Scale
        • Idioms
        • Size classes
        • Single-image launch screen
        • Multi-image launch screen
        • Dark Mode
  • config.xml Preferences
    • AutoHideSplashScreen
    • FadeSplashScreen
    • FadeSplashScreenDuration
    • ShowSplashScreenSpinner
    • SplashScreenDelay
    • AndroidPostSplashScreenTheme
    • AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon
    • AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimationDuration
    • AndroidWindowSplashScreenBackground
    • AndroidWindowSplashScreenBrandingImage
    • AndroidWindowSplashScreenIconBackgroundColor
  • JavaScript Public APIs
    • navigator.splashscreen.hide
    • navigator.splashscreen.show
  • Quirks & Known Issues
    • iOS
    • Android

Supported Platforms

• Android
• iOS

For other platforms, check the cordova-plugin-splashscreen for support.

Platform Splash Screen Image Configuration

Example Configuration

In the top-level config.xml file (not the one in platforms), add configuration elements like those specified here.

The value of the "src" attribute is relative to the project root directory and NOT to the www directory (see Directory structure below). You can name the source image file whatever you like. The internal name in the application is automatically determined by Cordova.

Directory structure:

projectRoot
    platforms
    plugins
    www
    res
        screen
            android
            ios

Config.xml:

<platform name="android">
    <preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon" value="res/screen/android/splashscreen.xml" />
</platform>

<!--
  Storyboard (supports all devices):
  Note: images are determined by scale, idiom, and size traits. The following
  are suggested based on current device form factors
-->
<platform name="ios">
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~comany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~comcom.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~universal~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~universal~anycom.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~universal~comany.png" />
</platform>

Android-specific Information

Starting in Android 12, Google has implemented a new SplashScreen API to controls the app launch animation which runs on a device with Android 12 and higher. For backwards compatability, Cordova has included the core-splashscreen compatability library which extends this features back to Android API 21 and higher.

To effectively create your own Android SplashScreen assets, it is important to understand the requirements of an Adaptive Icon.

Resource:

• Splash Screen dimensions
• Adaptive icons

Example Android Configuration

<platform name="android">
    <!-- Default -->
    <preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon" value="res/screen/android/splashscreen.xml" />
</platform>

iOS-specific Information

Launch storyboard images are sized based on scale, idiom, and size classes. It supports all devices, and can be used with split-screen/slide-over multitasking.

There is no official support for providing a native-resolution launch image for the iPad Pro 12.9 or for providing launch images that work with split-screen multitasking or slide-over.

Note: Since iOS 11, for iPhone X devices and greater (with notch screen), make sure to add viewport-fit=cover to the viewport meta tag in your index.html file to display the app correctly like so: <meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=no, initial-scale=1, width=device-width, viewport-fit=cover"> and make some modification to your app style by adding: padding: env(safe-area-inset-top) to your index.css file to avoid the unsafe areas behind notches in the screen.

Launch Storyboard Images

To support newer form factors and split-screen/slide-over multitasking, launch storyboard images are used.

• images are not specific to a given device.
• images are scaled to fill the available viewport (while maintaining the aspect ratio).
• the outer edges of the images will be cropped, and the amount will vary based on device an viewport.
• there is no need to provide an image for each possible device, viewport, and orientation; iOS will choose the best image for the situation automatically.

Designing Launch Storyboard Images

The key to designing a launch storyboard image is understanding that the edges of the image will almost certainly be cropped. Therefore, one should not place any important information near the edges of any images provided to the launch storyboard. Only the center is a safe area, and this all but guarantees that following Apple's advice of presenting an unpopulated user interface will not work well.

Instead, the following tips should enable you to create a launch image that works across a multitude of form factors, viewports, and orientations:

• Important graphics (logos, icons, titles) should be centered. The safe bounding region will vary, so you will need to test to ensure that the important graphics are never cropped. Better yet, don't supply any important graphics in the first place.

  • You can fine-tune the placement and size of these graphics.

• Use a simple color wash. If you use two colors, you'll want one color to fill the top half of the image, and the second to fill the bottom half. If you use a gradient, you'll probably want to ensure that the middle of the gradient lines up with the center of the image.

• Don't worry about pixel perfection -- because the images are scaled, there's almost no chance the images will be perfectly fit to the pixel grid. Since all supported iOS devices use retina screens, users will be hard pressed to notice it anyway.

It is important to understand the concept of scale, idiom, and size class traits in order to use launch storyboard images effectively. Of the images supplied to the launch storyboard, iOS will choose the image that best matches the device and viewport and render that image. It is possible to supply only one launch image if so desired, but it is also possible to fine-tune the displayed launch image based on traits. When fine-tuning, one can ignore traits that aren't targeted or supported by the app.

Scale

In general, you'll want to supply 2x and 3x images. Cordova only supports retina devices now, so there's no point in supplying 1x images.

Idioms

You only need to provide universal images unless you need to fine-tune for a specific device idiom.

Size classes

There are two size classes applies to both screen axes. Narrow viewports are considered to be the "compact" size class, and remaining viewports are considered "regular". When supplying images to Xcode, however, one must choose between "any & compact" and "any & regular". To stay consistent with the native terminology, this feature will match based on "any" and "compact". any will match regular-sized viewports.

Note: this feature uses com as an abbreviation for "compact" classes.

The following classes are supported by this feature:

To see the complete list of size classes associated with devices and viewports, see http://www.sizeclasses.com.

Single-image launch screen

If your launch image is simple, you may be able to avoid creating a lot of different launch images and supply only one. The launch image needs to meet the following requirements:

• the image should be square
• the image should be large enough to fit on an iPad Pro 12.9": 2732x2732
• anything important should fit within the center

Keep in mind that the image will be cropped, possibly quite severely, depending upon the viewport.

Once the image is created, you can include it in your project by adding the following to config.xml:

    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany.png" />

Because only one image is provided, iOS will utilize it in every context.

Multi-image launch screen

If a single launch image won't meet your needs, you will probably need to supply at least six images, if not more. Furthermore, keep in mind that it will not be possible to fine tune the image to a specific device, but only to a device class, display factor, and viewport size.

If you don't need to target images to a specific idiom, you should create six images, as follows:

* this image is required in order for iOS utilize the other images within this scale and idiom.

Note: If the 3x sizes look small too you, that's because there's only one device class that currently has a 3x density: the iPhone 6+/6s+/7+.

The above looks like the following snippet when present in config.xml:

    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~comany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~comcom.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~universal~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~universal~anycom.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~universal~comany.png" />

Should one need to further fine tune based upon device idiom, one can do so. This might look like so:

* this image is required in order for iOS utilize the other images within this scale and idiom.

The above looks like the following in config.xml:

    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~iphone~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~iphone~comany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~iphone~comcom.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~iphone~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~iphone~anycom.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@3x~iphone~comany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~ipad~anyany.png" />
    <splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~ipad~comany.png" />

Dark Mode

Since Cordova-iOS@6.1.0, it is now possible to optionally specify different SplashScreen images to use when the app is running in dark mode. The luminosity of SplashScreen images can be defined in config.xml using the ~dark and ~light suffixes.

<!-- Default image to be used for all modes -->
<splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany.png" />

<!-- Image to use specifically for dark mode devices -->
<splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany~dark.png" />

<!-- Image to use specifically for light mode devices -->
<splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany~light.png" />

Note: This works since iOS 13. iOS 12 and below will use the default SplashScreen without a luminosity suffix specified.

config.xml Preferences

AutoHideSplashScreen

Indicates whether to hide splash screen automatically or not. The splash screen is hidden after the amount of time specified in the SplashScreenDelay preference.

Supported Platforms:

• Android
• iOS

Data Type: Boolean

Default Value: true

Usage Example:

<preference name="AutoHideSplashScreen" value="true" />

FadeSplashScreen

Controlls the ability of the fade in and out of the splash screen.

For Android, it controlls only the fade out.

Supported Platforms:

• Android
• iOS

Data Type: Boolean

Default Value: true

Usage Example:

<preference name="FadeSplashScreen" value="false"/>

FadeSplashScreenDuration

Controlls the length of the the splash screen fade effect.

Supported Platforms:

• Android
• iOS

Data Type: Float, in milliseconds

Default Value: 500

Usage Example:

<preference name="FadeSplashScreenDuration" value="750"/>

iOS Note: FadeSplashScreenDuration is included into SplashScreenDelay, for example if you have <preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="3000" /> and <preference name="FadeSplashScreenDuration" value="1000"/> defined in config.xml:

• 00:00 - splashscreen is shown
• 00:02 - fading has started
• 00:03 - splashscreen is hidden

Turning the fading off via <preference name="FadeSplashScreen" value="false"/> technically means fading duration to be 0 so that in this example the overall splash screen delay will still be 3 seconds.

Note: This only applies to the application startup - you need to take the fading timeout into account when manually showing/hiding the splash screen in your application's code:

navigator.splashscreen.show();
window.setTimeout(function () {
    navigator.splashscreen.hide();
}, splashDuration - fadeDuration);

ShowSplashScreenSpinner

Controlls the splash screen spinner.

Supported Platforms:

• iOS

Data Type: Boolean

Default Value: true

Usage Example:

<preference name="ShowSplashScreenSpinner" value="false"/>

SplashScreenDelay

Amount of time in milliseconds to wait before automatically hide splash screen.

Supported Platforms:

• Android
• iOS

Data Type: Number, in milliseconds

Default Value: true

• Android -1: The splash screen will automatically hide when the onPageFinished has been triggered.

• iOS 3000: The splash screen will automatically hide in 3 seconds.

Usage Example:

<preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="3000" />

AndroidPostSplashScreenTheme

Sets the post-theme of the activity after splash screen hides.

Note: This setting is available but use at your own risk.

Supported Platforms:

• Android

Data Type: String

Default Value: @style/Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar

Usage Example:

<preference name="AndroidPostSplashScreenTheme" value="@style/Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar"/>

AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon

The splash screen image. This preference is used for both animated and non-animated icons. The current acceptable asset files can either be an XML Vector Drawable or PNG.

:warning: Using Adaptive Icons requires Minimum SDK 26 to be set.

:warning: Some XML Vector features requires Minimum SDK 24 to be set.

Supported Platforms:

• Android

Data Type: String, file path to the asset file

Default Value: If not supplied, the Cordova's default asset is used.

Usage Example:

<preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon" value="res/screen/android/splashscreen.xml" />

AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimationDuration

Defines the duration of the icon's animation if an Animated Vector Drawable is supplied as the splash screen image.

Supported Platforms:

• Android

Data Type: Number, in milliseconds

Default Value: undefined

Usage Example:

<preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimationDuration" value="3000"/>

AndroidWindowSplashScreenBackground

The splash screen background color.

Supported Platforms:

• Android

Data Type: String, color hex code value.

Default Value: #ffffff

Usage Example:

<preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenBackground" value="#ffffff" />

AndroidWindowSplashScreenBrandingImage

:warning: this setting is currently unsupported by the Android's Splash Screen compatability library. See Google Android Issue Tracker

AndroidWindowSplashScreenIconBackgroundColor

The splash screen's icons background color. Useful to seperate increase the contrast seperation between the background and icon.

Supported Platforms:

• Android

Data Type: String, color hex code value.

Default Value: undefined

Usage Example:

<preference name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenIconBackgroundColor" value="#c0c0c0" />

JavaScript Public APIs

navigator.splashscreen.hide

Dismiss the splash screen.

Supported Platforms:

• Android
• iOS

Usage Example:

navigator.splashscreen.hide();

iOS Quirk:

The config.xml file's AutoHideSplashScreen setting must be false. To delay hiding the splash screen for two seconds, add a timer such as the following in the deviceready event handler:

setTimeout(function() {
    navigator.splashscreen.hide();
}, 2000);

navigator.splashscreen.show

Displays the splash screen.

Supported Platforms:

• iOS

Usage Example:

navigator.splashscreen.show();

Your application cannot call navigator.splashscreen.show() until the application has started and the deviceready event has fired. But since typically the splash screen is meant to be visible before your application has started, that would seem to defeat the purpose of the splash screen. Providing any parameters in config.xml will automatically show the splash screen immediately after your application is launched and before it has fully started and received the deviceready event. For this reason, it is unlikely you will need to call navigator.splashscreen.show() to make the splash screen visible for application startup.

Quirks & Known Issues

iOS

1. In iOS, the splash screen images are called launch images. These images are mandatory on iOS.

2. App on target may not reflect changes to images Once you run the app on a target, iOS caches the launch image. Unfortunately, when you change the image, iOS does not invalidate the cache, which means you'll still see the old launch image. You should either: delete the app, or reset content & settings (simulator).

3. Simulator may not show expected images when launched from CLI When Xcode deploys to a specific simulator, it only copies the assets that match the simulator's characteristics. For example, if you try to run an app on the iPhone 6s Plus simulator, only @3x launch images are copied. When compiling from the CLI, however, the default is to assume an iPhone 5s, which means only @2x launch images are copied. Unless your launch images are markedly different, chances are good the difference would go unnoticed, but this does mean that the only accurate method of testing is to test on a physical device.

4. anyany must be provided for other variations to be used If you don't provide an anyany version of the launch image for a specific scale and idiom, the other variations (like anycom, comany, and comcom) will ignored.

Android

1. Simulator does not show the splash screen when launching the application from Android Studio or Cordova CLI. This is a known Android simulator issue. After uploading the app to the simulator, exiting and opening the app will display show the Splash Screen. If changes are not showen, try also performing a clean build.