How can I modify ripple color when using ?attr/selectableItemBackground as background?

Finally I find the solution: instead of using android:colorControlHighlight directly in theme SelectableItemBackground, I should write another style:

<style name="SelectableItemTheme">
    <item name="colorControlHighlight">@color/ripple_color</item>
</style>

Then:

<style name="SelectableItemBackground">
    <item name="android:theme">@style/SelectableItemTheme</item>
    <item name="android:background">?attr/selectableItemBackground</item>
</style>

Finally add style="@style/SelectableItemBackground" to View in layout.xml.

UPDATED ON 2016/8/26 After N's release, I found that sometimes we cannot use this method to set ripple color for some kind of View(for example, the CardView). Now I highly recommend developers using RippleDrawable, which can also be declared in xml. Here is an example:

I want to show a ripple effect when user touches/clicks a CardView above API21, and of course there should be another kind of feedback before Lollipop. So I should write:

<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:foreground="@drawable/selectable_item_background"/>

and selectable_item_background in drawable folder:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_pressed="false" android:drawable="@android:color/transparent" />
    <item android:drawable="@color/color_clicked" />
</selector>

selectable_item_background in drawable-v21 folder:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/ripple_black" />
</selector>

finally, the ripple_black in drawable(or drawable-v21) folder:

<ripple
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:color="@color/color_clicked"
    tools:ignore="NewApi" /> <!--you can remove this line if it's in v21 folder-->

That's it. For other views, maybe you should use android:background="@drawable/selectable_item_background". Don't forget to set an OnClickListener, OnTouchListener or something like those for them, otherwise ripple won't show.

Ripple effect on pre- and Lollipop+ devices

harrane and Liuting are right. The accepted answer is not the best way. Let me show in code how to change ripple color for pre-Lollipop versions and higher

1. Your AppTheme should inherit from any AppCompat theme and contain colorControlHighlight attribute (without 'android:' prefix)

   <!-- Application theme. -->
   <style name="AppTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
   <item name="colorControlHighlight">#40ffffff</item>
   </style>
   

2. Your view should contain clickable="true" (or should have a click listener set programmatically) and background should be "?attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless" or "?attr/selectableItemBackground" :

   <LinearLayout
   ...
   android:clickable="true"
   android:background="?attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless"/>
   

Note: that if your parent view has white background you won't see ripple effect since it's white. Change colorControlHighlight value for a different color

Also, if you want different ripple colors on different activities you can set personal theme for each activity in Manifest file, for example:

       <activity
        android:name="com.myapp.GalleryActivity"
        android:theme="@style/RedRippleTheme"
        />

Different ripple colors for different fragments in the same activity?

You can change attributes of Activity Theme for each fragment in runtime. Just overwrite them before fragment was inflated with your custom style and apply to a current Theme:

in values/styles.xml

    <style name="colorControlHighlight_blue">
       <item name="colorControlHighlight">@color/main_blue_alpha26</item>
    </style>

Then, in your fragment before inflation in onCreateView():

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       getContext().getTheme().applyStyle(R.style.colorControlHighlight_blue, true); //blue ripple color
       View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.my_fragment_layout, container, false);
       return view;
    }

This style will work only for this fragment

Different ripple color for different Views? (Lollipop +)

You can change the ripple color for each view seperately using colorControlHighlight attribute, it doesn't work if you apply them to a view directly:

    <TextView
     ...
     colorControlHighlight="#40ffffff"/> <!-- DOESN'T WORK -->

you should apply it as a theme:

<TextView
  ...
  android:theme="@style/colorControlHighlight_blue"/>

P.S. Also, sometimes this approach helps if you have unknown issues with ripple and you can't figure it out. In my case, I used 3rd party sliding lib which messed up ripple effects for the entire layout and adding explicitly this theme to all clickable views worked out for me.