A practical guide on svg for ios and android apps — when, why, and how.
Mobile apps benefit from SVG (or SVG-derived formats) because icons and UI elements need to look sharp across many screen densities — from low-DPI budget phones to 3× Retina displays.
Android: Vector Drawables
Android uses Vector Drawable (XML format based on SVG paths). Android Studio can import SVGs directly via File → New → Vector Asset → Local File. The SVG paths are converted to Android's vector format automatically.
iOS: PDF or SVG Assets
Xcode supports PDF vector assets in asset catalogs (set "Preserve Vector Data" to render at any scale). Starting with Xcode 12+, SVG is also supported directly as an asset type.
Converting PNG App Icons to SVG
If your app icons are currently PNG, convert them to SVG to eliminate the need for multiple resolution variants (1×, 2×, 3×, mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi, xxxhdpi). One vector file replaces 6+ PNG variants.
Performance Note
Vector rendering is slightly slower than bitmap rendering. For complex illustrations, pre-render to PNG at each density. For simple icons (which is most app UI), vector is faster overall because it avoids loading multiple bitmap files.