No shadow by default on Toolbar?

I'm updating my app with the new Toolbar from the support library v21. My problem is that the toolbar does not cast any shadow if I don't set the "elevation" attribute. Is that the normal behavior or I'm doing something wrong?

My code is:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="fill_parent"
   android:orientation="vertical">

   <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
       xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
       android:id="@+id/my_awesome_toolbar"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
       android:elevation="4dp"
       android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
       app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"
       app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" />

   <FrameLayout
       android:id="@+id/FrameLayout1"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent">
       .
       .
       .

And in my Activity - OnCreate method:

    Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.my_awesome_toolbar);
    setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

I ended up setting my own drop shadow for the toolbar, thought it might helpful for anyone looking for it:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
              android:layout_width="wrap_content"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:layout_gravity="top"
              android:orientation="vertical">

    <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar android:id="@+id/toolbar"
                                       android:layout_width="match_parent"
                                       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                                       android:background="@color/color_alizarin"
                                       android:titleTextAppearance="@color/White"
                                       app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"/>

    <FrameLayout android:layout_width="match_parent"
                 android:layout_height="match_parent">

        <!-- **** Place Your Content Here **** -->

        <View android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="5dp"
              android:background="@drawable/toolbar_dropshadow"/>

    </FrameLayout>

</LinearLayout>

@drawable/toolbar_dropshadow:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
       android:shape="rectangle">

    <gradient android:startColor="@android:color/transparent"
              android:endColor="#88333333"
              android:angle="90"/>

</shape>

@color/color_alizarin

<color name="color_alizarin">#e74c3c</color>

Google released the Design Support library a few weeks ago and there is a nifty solution for this problem in this library.

Add the Design Support library as a dependency in build.gradle :

compile 'com.android.support:design:22.2.0'

Add AppBarLayout supplied by the library as a wrapper around your Toolbar layout to generate a drop shadow.

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
       <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
           .../>
    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

Here is the result :

There are lots of other tricks with the design support library.

1. http://inthecheesefactory.com/blog/android-design-support-library-codelab/en
2. http://android-developers.blogspot.in/2015/05/android-design-support-library.html

AndroidX

As above but with dependency:

implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.0.0'

and com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout