How To fix white screen on app Start up?

Question

Put this in a custom style and it solves all the problems. Using the hacky translucent fix will make your task bar and nav bar translucent and make the splashscreen or main screen look like spaghetti.

<item name="android:windowDisablePreview">true</item>

Just mention the transparent theme to the starting activity in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

Like:

<activity
        android:name="first Activity Name"
        android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar" >
 <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
 </activity>

and extend that screen with Activity class in place of AppCompatActivity.

like :

public class SplashScreenActivity extends Activity{

  ----YOUR CODE GOES HERE----
}

Like you tube.. initially they show icon screen instead of white screen. And after 2 seconds shows home screen.

first create an XML drawable in res/drawable.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item
        android:drawable="@color/gray"/>

    <item>
        <bitmap
            android:gravity="center"
            android:src="@mipmap/ic_launcher"/>
    </item>

</layer-list>

Next, you will set this as your splash activity’s background in the theme. Navigate to your styles.xml file and add a new theme for your splash activity

<resources>

    <!-- Base application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
    </style>

    <style name="SplashTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">
        <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/background_splash</item>
    </style>

</resources>

In your new SplashTheme, set the window background attribute to your XML drawable. Configure this as your splash activity’s theme in your AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity
    android:name=".SplashActivity"
    android:theme="@style/SplashTheme">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

This link gives what you want. step by step procedure. https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/splash-screens-the-right-way/

UPDATE:

The layer-list can be even simpler like this (which also accepts vector drawables for the centered logo, unlike the <bitmap> tag):

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <!-- Background color -->
    <item android:drawable="@color/gray"/>

    <!-- Logo at the center of the screen -->
    <item
        android:drawable="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:gravity="center"/>
</layer-list>

Make a style in you style.xml as follows :

<style name="Theme.Transparent" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item>
    <item name="android:windowFullscreen">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
</style>

and use it with your activity in AndroidManifest as:

<activity android:name=".ActivitySplash" android:theme="@style/Theme.Transparent">

You should read this great post by Cyril Mottier: Android App launching made gorgeous

You need to customise your Theme in style.xml and avoid to customise in your onCreate as ActionBar.setIcon/setTitle/etc.

See also the Documentation on Performance Tips by Google.

Use Trace View and Hierarchy Viewer to see the time to display your Views: Android Performance Optimization / Performance Tuning On Android

Use AsyncTask to display some views.

This is my AppTheme on an example app:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
</style>

As you can see, I have the default colors and then I added the android:windowIsTranslucent and set it to true.

As far as I know as an Android Developer, this is the only thing you need to set in order to hide the white screen on the start of the application.

Both properties works use any one of them.

    <style name="AppBaseThemeDark" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat">
            <!--your other properties -->
            <!--<item name="android:windowDisablePreview">true</item>-->
            <item name="android:windowBackground">@null</item>
            <!--your other properties -->
    </style>