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Stock Android doesn't support 'badges' (e.g. unread count on a messaging app) that overlay the app icon like on the iPhone. There are a number of questions here on Stackoverflow which confirm this and suggest using a widget.

Whilst widgets are lovely things, they require too much interaction from the user to get in place (all that searching, long pressing etc.) and don't actually change the app icon. So no, that is not an option.

I accept that Android doesn't have app icon badges. However, HTC Sense and Samsung TouchWiz do. I'm looking at my Galaxy S right now, and the app launcher Messaging icon has a badge with the number of unread SMS messages.

Does anyone know how to access this badge functionality individually for Sense and TouchWiz devices? (I expect there are two APIs).

KevinD
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I don't know about HTC but I've written up how to do this on Samsung phones here How to interface with the BadgeProvider on Samsung phones to add a count to the app icon?

Community
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Daniel Ochoa
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Does anyone know how to access this badge functionality individually for Sense and TouchWiz devices? (I expect there are two APIs).

Become an employee of HTC or Samsung, respectively.

HTC might start offering an API for stuff like this through Open Sense. Samsung might start offering an API for stuff like this through their developer site. I am not aware that either are at present and I wouldn't count on it becoming available.

What you are seeing is a feature of those home screens. You are, of course, welcome to write your own home screen where you have this functionality, perhaps even exposing an API for third-party developers to use.

CommonsWare
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Still no positive answer to this?

It's very strange that they (HTC and Samsung) haven't come up with a way for third-party apps to update their widgets! So we end up with users of third-party sms apps to complain about the sms counter not updating when it should. This is very sad, especially on the Android world where app integration has been made so easy by the framework! Such implementations should be negatively judged by Android community and the Android Alliance!

If anyone has found a work-around for force updating the widgets of the vendor specific sms apps (HTC and Samsung), so the unread sms counters correctly update, and would like to share this knowledge, you are more than welcome!

Ioannis Sermetziadis
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