How to change status bar color to match app in Lollipop? [Android]

Solution 1:

To change status bar color use setStatusBarColor(int color). According the javadoc, we also need set some flags on the window.

Working snippet of code:

Window window = activity.getWindow();
window.addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_DRAWS_SYSTEM_BAR_BACKGROUNDS);
window.clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TRANSLUCENT_STATUS);
window.setStatusBarColor(ContextCompat.getColor(activity, R.color.example_color));

Keep in mind according Material Design guidelines status bar color and action bar color should be different:

• ActionBar should use primary 500 color
• StatusBar should use primary 700 color

Look at the screenshot below:

Solution 2:

Just add this in you styles.xml. The colorPrimary is for the action bar and the colorPrimaryDark is for the status bar.

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <item name="android:colorPrimary">@color/primary</item>
    <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/primary_dark</item>
</style>

This picture from developer android explains more about color pallete. You can read more on this link.

Solution 3:

Another way to set the status bar color is through the style.xml.

To do that, create a style.xml file under res/values-v21 folder with this content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material">
        <!--   darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
        <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/blue_dark</item>
    </style>
</resources>

Edit: as pointed out in comments, when using AppCompat the code is different. In file res/values/style.xml use instead:

<style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">   
    <!-- Set AppCompat’s color theming attrs -->
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/my_awesome_red</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/my_awesome_darker_red</item>
    <!-- Other attributes -->
</style>