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

I was looking for the same thing and here's what worked for me.

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

This will give a short name to your application launcher icon.

To add a larger name to the application bar you just have to add:

this.setTitle(getResources().getString(R.string.app_name));

to your main activity java file.

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.