How Do I Show Badge Counts On The App Icon Or In Widget

For example: my app got few messages and I need to inform user about this. Do I need make widget? I read this How do I add a number to the launcher icon like HTC mail Does?, but it

Solution 1:

Launcher icons as managed by the launcher which the default launcher does not have this functionality.

I would recommend to use the notification bar and then secondary a possible widget but it wouldn't be required.

As a note, a launcher that does have this functionality is ADW but I don't believe there is an API for it so they would manager which notifications get displayed on which applications. ADWNotifier: check here

Solution 2:

Android's user notification design principle revolves around the notification bar. The user should be always alerted only using notifications.