Favicon Testing Checklist — Verify Across All Platforms
A comprehensive checklist for testing favicons across all browsers, platforms, and contexts. Covers desktop, mobile, PWA, social sharing, and accessibility testing.
Best Practices
Detailed Explanation
Favicon Testing Checklist
After creating your favicons, systematic testing ensures they appear correctly everywhere. Use this checklist to verify your implementation.
Desktop Browser Testing
- Chrome — Check in both light and dark theme
- Firefox — Check tab, bookmark, and address bar
- Safari — Check tab and pinned tab (mask icon)
- Edge — Check tab and favorites
- Tab groups — Test in Chrome's colored tab groups
Browser Features
- Standard tab — Icon visible and recognizable
- Pinned tab — Icon scales correctly when tab is pinned
- Bookmark bar — Icon appears next to site name
- History — Icon visible in browser history list
- New tab page — Icon in frequently visited sites
- Address bar — Icon appears next to URL
Mobile Testing
- iOS Safari — Add to Home Screen, check icon appearance
- iOS Chrome — Check tab and bookmarks
- Android Chrome — Add to Home Screen, check icon
- Android Firefox — Check tab appearance
- iPadOS — Check in split view and full screen
PWA Testing
- Install prompt — Icon in "Add to Home Screen" dialog
- Splash screen — Icon centered with correct background
- App drawer — Icon identifiable among other apps
- Recent apps — Icon visible in app switcher
- Maskable display — No important content clipped
Network Conditions
- Cache cleared — Fresh load shows correct favicons
- Force refresh — Ctrl+Shift+R updates the favicon
- Service worker — Cached favicon matches current version
- CDN — If using a CDN, verify favicon is served correctly
Technical Validation
- HTML validation — All link tags are well-formed
- Manifest validation — Use Chrome DevTools > Application tab
- File sizes — Each file is under 50KB
- Correct dimensions — Each file matches its declared size
- HTTPS — Favicons load without mixed content warnings
- 404 check — No favicon files return 404 errors
Accessibility
- Color contrast — Icon visible against browser UI
- Not relying on color alone — Shape is distinctive
- Consistent identity — Same visual identity at all sizes
Use Case
QA engineers, web developers, and DevOps teams use this checklist before launching a website or after making changes to the favicon implementation. It is particularly valuable for enterprise websites where brand consistency across all platforms is a requirement and for PWA deployments where the icon impacts the installed app experience.