Android lollipop change navigation bar color

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The question:

In my app I need to change the bottom navigation bar color. I watched many post but cant find with the solution. I am using appCompat library.

enter image description here

v21/styles.xml

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
       <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/bgpreview</item>
       <item name="android:colorPrimary">@color/MyColor</item>
       <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/MyColor</item>
       <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
       <item name="android:textColorPrimary">@color/MyColor</item>
       <item name="colorAccent">@color/MyColor</item>
       <!-- darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
       <item name="android:windowContentTransitions">true</item>
       <item name="android:windowAllowEnterTransitionOverlap">true</item>
       <item name="android:windowAllowReturnTransitionOverlap">true</item>
       <item name="android:windowSharedElementEnterTransition">@android:transition/move</item>
       <item name="android:windowSharedElementExitTransition">@android:transition/move</item>

       <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
       <item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>

</style>

The Solutions:

Below are the methods you can try. The first solution is probably the best. Try others if the first one doesn’t work. Senior developers aren’t just copying/pasting – they read the methods carefully & apply them wisely to each case.

Method 1

It can be done inside styles.xml using

<item name="android:navigationBarColor">@color/theme_color</item>

or 

window.setNavigationBarColor(@ColorInt int color)

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/Window.html#setNavigationBarColor(int)

Note that the method was introduced in Android Lollipop and won’t work on API version < 21.

The second method (works on KitKat) is to set windowTranslucentNavigation to true in the manifest and place a colored view beneath the navigation bar.

Method 2

Here is how to do it programatically: 

if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {                
   getWindow().setNavigationBarColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.your_awesome_color));
}

Using Compat library:

if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
    getWindow().setNavigationBarColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.primary));
}

Here is how to do it with xml in the values-v21/style.xml folder:

<item name="android:navigationBarColor">@color/your_color</item>

Method 3

Here are some ways to change Navigation Bar color.

By the XML

1- values-v21/style.xml

<item name="android:navigationBarColor">@color/navigationbar_color</item>

Or if you want to do it only using the values/ folder then-

2- values/style.xml

<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

<item name="android:navigationBarColor" tools:targetApi="21">@color/navigationbar_color</item>

You can also change navigation bar color By Programming.

 if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21)
    getWindow().setNavigationBarColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.navigationbar_color));

By Using Compat Library-

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21) {
    getWindow().setNavigationBarColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.primary));
}

please find the link for more details- http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/Window.html#setNavigationBarColor(int)

Method 4

You can add the following line in the values-v21/style.xml folder:

<item name="android:navigationBarColor">@color/theme_color</item>

Method 5

For people using Kotlin you can put this in your MainActivity.kt:

window.navigationBarColor = ContextCompat.getColor([email protected], R.color.yourColor)

With window being:

val window: Window = [email protected]

Or you can put this in your themes.xml or styles.xml (requires API level 21):

<item name='android:navigationBarColor'>@color/yourColor</item>

Method 6

  1. Create Black Color: <color name="blackColorPrimary">#000001</color> (not #000000)
  2. Write in Style: <item name="android:navigationBarColor" tools:targetApi="lollipop">@color/blackColorPrimary</item>

Problem is that android higher version make trasparent for #000000

Method 7

You can also modify your theme using theme Editor by clicking :

Tools -> Android -> Theme Editor

Then, you don’t even need to put some extra content in your .xml or .class files.

Method 8

Put these on your theme

themes.xml: < item name=”android:navigationBarColor”
tools:targetApi=”21″>yourcolor < /item>

Method 9

You can change it directly in styles.xml file appsrcmainresvaluesstyles.xml

This work on older versions, I was changing it in KitKat and come here.


All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

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