How to set different label for launcher rather than activity title?

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Apparently <intent-filter> can have a label attribute. If it’s absent the label is inherited from the parent component (either Activity or Application). So using this, you can set a label for the launcher icon, while still having the Activity with it’s own title.

Note that, while this works on emulators, it might not work on real devices, because it depends on the launcher implementation that is used.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/intent-filter-element.html

<activity
  android:name=".ui.HomeActivity"
  android:label="@string/title_home_activity"
  android:icon="@drawable/icon">
  <intent-filter android:label="@string/app_name">
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
  </intent-filter>
</activity>

Side Note: <intent-filter> can also have an icon attribute, but
inexplicably it does not override the icon specified in the
Activity. This may be important to you if you plan to use the native
ActionBar in SDK 11+, which uses Icon and Logo specified on the
Activity.

Added Info: The label is being inherited from Activity and not the Application.

 <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"       
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

        <activity
            android:name=".StartActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_long_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

In this case, app_long_name will be displayed with launcher icon, if we do not put label inside as mentioned above.

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