Upload, Upload… Wait, What? (#7)

📱 Icon, Why Are You Even Here?

I heard that if you build an AAB file, you can upload it to Google Play and download it directly.
So I happily built one, uploaded it, and installed it on my phone.

And then… huh?
Why does my icon look like this?
I never put that in there.

The app title was wrong too!
Apparently, it was the default placeholder icon you get when you first create a project—ugly, generic, and absolutely not mine.

What's this abomination??

Oh my eyes... This had to be fixed.

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🎯 Down the Icon Design Rabbit Hole

That’s when I finally realized the importance of having a decent icon.
In my ignorance, I asked ChatGPT for ideas:

“Something that feels like record-keeping + a golf ball or flag, green tones.”

It gave me a golf club and a ball on a tee.
I was too lazy to argue, so I went with it.

Uploaded it… and the logo was cropped.

Adaptive icon? Apparently, it “adjusts” itself as it pleases.

The original placeholder icon actually had a useful triple-circle guide for designing icons,
but I had coolly deleted it forever.
That was my first mistake.

What I wanted vs What happened

💢 The nth Attempt and the Frustration

Three builds later—same problem.
Frustrated, I went straight to the official Google docs:
👉 Android Adaptive Icon Guidelines.

I read them.
I made GPT read them.

It still couldn’t position things correctly within the safe zone.

So I opened PowerPoint, drew the safe zone myself, and manually resized the logo.

The result?
Ugly. Painfully ugly.
Cheap-looking. Eye-searing. I hated it.

I HATED IT

🔄 Back to Square One

I asked GPT why my icon was so bad.
I accepted its critique and reworked the design with its suggestions.

After who-knows-how-many tries (seven?), I ended up with…
a golf ball sitting on a notebook.

Not exactly a design masterpiece, but better than before.

And sometimes, better than before is enough.
(Extreme positivity mode: ON.)

My 7th attempt

…Then I realized both my apps had the exact same name. 🙃