How to use Holo.Light theme, and fall back to 'Light' on pre-honeycomb devices?

Solution 1:

You have to create a custom theme and save it in some directories to finally set this theme as the default one for the app

First, in values add a themes.xml like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="MyAppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Light.NoTitleBar">
        <!-- Any customizations for your app running on pre-3.0 devices here -->
    </style>
</resources> 

Then, create a directory with the name "values-v11" (Android 3.0+ ) in the res directory and put a themes.xml like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="MyAppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
        <!-- Any customizations for your app running on 3.0+ devices here -->
    </style>
</resources>

Finally, create a directory with the name "values-v14" (Android 4.0+) in the res directory and create a themes.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="MyAppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.DeviceDefault.Light.NoActionBar">
        <!-- Any customizations for your app running on 4.0+ devices here -->
    </style>
</resources>

With the DeviceDefault your app allways look perfect in any device of any company (HTC Samsung ... ) that add created custom themes for Android 4

EDIT: Samsung's interface (TouchWiz) dont respect this feature and the apps will be very ugly on Samsung's devices. Its better put Holo theme :(

Finally in your manifest.xml

 <application
        ...
        android:theme="@style/MyAppTheme">