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I'm confused about what's the simplest way to get favicons working on the majority of handsets and browsers.
1) Some sites suggest that it is enough to use:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="apple-touch-icon-180x180.png">
That will work for iOS 8, and should be picked up by Android, BlackBerry, Windows, etc.
2) Other sites insist that every single possible favicon must be explicitly specified:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="57x57" href="/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="114x114" href="/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="72x72" href="/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="144x144" href="/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="60x60" href="/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="120x120" href="/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="76x76" href="/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="152x152" href="/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/apple-touch-icon-180x180.png">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon-192x192.png" sizes="192x192">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon-160x160.png" sizes="160x160">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32">
<meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000">
<meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="/mstile-144x144.png">
3) This answer says that you just need:
<!-- For IE 9 and below. ICO should be 32x32 pixels in size -->
<!--[if IE]><link rel="shortcut icon" href="path/to/favicon.ico"><![endif]-->
<!-- Touch Icons - iOS and Android 2.1+ 180x180 pixels in size. -->
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png">
<!-- Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE 11+ and Opera. 196x196 pixels in size. -->
<link rel="icon" href="path/to/favicon.png">
Which of the above is going to cover the most browsers / handsets with the minimum amount of effort?
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Favicon images are small in size, only 16 pixels in height by 16 pixels in width, so there is not much space for complex designs. Still, a good favicon that is clean, simple and easily identifiable can provide a good visual indicator for visitors navigating to your site through their tabs or bookmarks.
A favicon is a small, 16x16 pixel icon used on web browsers to represent a website or a web page. Short for “favorite icon,”' favicons are commonly displayed on tabs at the top of a web browser,—but they're also found on your browser's bookmark bar, history and in search results, alongside the page url.
To add a favicon to your website, either save your favicon image to the root directory of your webserver, or create a folder in the root directory called images, and save your favicon image in this folder. A common name for a favicon image is "favicon.ico".
The standard size for favicons is 16x16 pixels, but most designers start with 32x32 pixels to accommodate retina screens. This way, the larger favicons show up nicely on retina screens and can also be scaled down.
The code in solution 3 is correct but outdated. Precomposed Touch icons were deprecated in iOS 7 and Android Chrome does not support 196x196 icons anymore, but 192x192 (it really won't use anything above 192x192; full disclosure: I'm the author of this article).
So:
<!-- For IE 9 and below. ICO should be 32x32 pixels in size -->
<!--[if IE]><link rel="shortcut icon" href="/path/to/favicon.ico"><![endif]-->
<!-- Touch Icons - iOS and Android 2.1+ 180x180 pixels in size. -->
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/path/to/apple-touch-icon.png">
<!-- Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE 11+ and Opera. 192x192 pixels in size. -->
<link rel="icon" href="/path/to/favicon.png">
If you can place favicon.ico in the root of the web site, you can even skip its declaration, since IE looks for /favicon.ico by convention.
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