How to enable custom notification icons on Android

Android is filled with all kinds of useful features, but some of them are not so well known. Many of you probably don’t know that you can enable custom notification icons on Android, and we’re here to show you how to do that. This feature was not exactly shown off by Google, at least not in the proper capacity. It’s also a bit hidden, so we can’t really blame you if you didn’t spot it right away.

What we’ll do here will basically allow you to change notification icons for any conversation-based notification, and yes, any app for that matter. That way, you can see different notification icons in the status bar. For example, if your brother/sister messages you from Facebook Messenger, you can see their profile pictures in the status bar, instead of just a Messenger icon. That way you’ll know exactly who messaged you without even looking at the notification shade.

So, how can you do that? Well, first of all, please note that this feature is not available on all versions of Android. It’s also a newer feature. In other words, it will be available on stock-ish versions of Android, but don’t expect it to be a part of OxygenOS, ColorOS, or any other similar app. We haven’t checked all Android skins, of course, but we did notice it’s usually available only on stock-ish versions. For example, it’s available on Pixel phones, and on ASUS’ ZenFones running Android 13. That much we can confirm. Having said that, we’ll demonstrate how you can enable it on your Pixel phone. Let’s get to it.

How to enable custom notification icons on Android to spice up your status bar

The first thing you’ll need to do is navigate to your phone’s settings. There are several ways to do that, but we’ll do it the old-fashioned way, by opening up the app drawer by swiping up on the home screen. From there, tap the ‘Settings’ icon.

Once you’re in the phone’s settings, navigate to the ‘Notifications’ menu.

There, you’ll see the ‘Conversation’ menu, which is what we need.

Now, once you’re in the ‘Conversations’ menu, you’ll see a list of your recent conversations. All your conversation-based apps will be listed here, along with your contacts. So, just choose for which contact you’d like to make this change to. Do note that you can make it for any contact within any app, so you’ll need to do it separately for the same person inside Facebook Messenger and Viber, for example.

Once you’ve selected the person for whose convo you’d like to make the change to, simply choose the ‘Priority’ settings. You’re basically done.

Now, every time you get a message from that contact (and the app you set the preference for), his/hers profile image will be shown in the status bar, instead of the general app icon.

Also, when you open up the notification shade, an orange ring will be placed around the app icons. It’s there to highlight the fact this is a ‘Priority’ contact.

Another thing to note is that you can further customize the image that is shown via Google Contacts. You can select any image you want from there, for the contact of your preference. That image will be shown instead of their profile picture. This way you can even edit the image in bulk, if your contacts are sorted properly, of course.