NavigationView menu items with counter on the right

Starting from version 23 of appcompat-v7 NavigationView supports action views, so it is quite easy to implement counter yourself.

1. Create counter layout, i.e. menu_counter.xml:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:gravity="center_vertical"
       android:textAppearance="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Body2" />
   

2. Reference it in your drawer menu xml, i.e. menu/drawer.xml:

   <item
       ...
       app:actionLayout="@layout/menu_counter" />
   

Note that you should use app namespace, don't try to use android.

Alternatively you can manually set action view with MenuItem.setActionView() method.

3. Find menu item and set counter:

   private void setMenuCounter(@IdRes int itemId, int count) {
       TextView view = (TextView) navigationView.getMenu().findItem(itemId).getActionView();
       view.setText(count > 0 ? String.valueOf(count) : null);
   }
   

Note, that you will need to use MenuItemCompat if you have to support Android 2.x versions.

My workaround was passing a SpannableString with a different background as new title of the MenuItem.

I known is not the best solution and it's not right-aligned but it works as a counter quite well. Something like this:

NavigationView navigation = (NavigationView)findViewById(R.id.navigation);
Menu menuNav = navigation.getMenu();
MenuItem element = menuNav.findItem(R.id.item5);
String before = element.getTitle().toString();

String counter = Integer.toString(5);
String s = before + "   "+counter+" ";
SpannableString sColored = new SpannableString( s );

sColored.setSpan(new BackgroundColorSpan( Color.GRAY ), s.length()-(counter.length()+2), s.length(), 0);
sColored.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan( Color.WHITE ), s.length()-(counter.length()+2), s.length(), 0);


element.setTitle(sColored);

To improve the counter, here you can find a good answer to set the corners rounded

Example: