How to change the color of Action Bar in an Android App?

Customizing the Action Bar allows you to enhance the visual appeal of your Android app. In this article, you will learn how to change the colour of the Action Bar in an Android App.

Basically, there are two ways to change color.

1. By changing styles.xml file:
   • Just go to res/values/styles.xml file
   • edit the xml file to change the color of action bar.
   • Code for styles.xml is given below
   MainActivity.java

   package com.geeksforgeeks.changecolor;
   import android.widget.TextView;
   import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
   
   public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
       @Override
       protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
       {
           super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
           setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
           // Define text View
           TextView t = findViewById(R.id.textview);
           t.setText("Geeks for Geeks");
       }
   }
   

   styles.xml

   <resources>
   
       <!-- Base application theme. -->
       <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
           <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
           <!-- This code is for changing the color of the bar. -->
           <!-- Type your colour code which you want to set in colorPrimary item -->
           <item name="colorPrimary">#0F9D58</item>
           <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
           <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
       </style>
       <style name="AppTheme.NoActionBar">
           <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
           <item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
       </style>
       <!-- Define other styles to fix theme -->
       <style name="AppTheme.AppBarOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar" />
       <style name="AppTheme.PopupOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" />
   </resources>
   

   activity_main.xml

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   
   <!--Relative Layout-->
   <RelativeLayout
       xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:id="@+id/relativelayout">
   
       <!--Text View-->
      <TextView
          android:layout_width="wrap_content"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:id="@+id/textview"
          android:textColor="#0F9D58"
          android:textSize="32dp"
          android:layout_centerInParent="true"/>
   </RelativeLayout>
   

2. Through Java file by defining ActionBar object:
   • Define object for ActionBar and colorDrawable class
   • set color using setBackgroundDrawable function with colorDrawable object as its parameter.
   • Here is complete code for MainActivity.java
   MainActivity.java

   package com.geeksforgeeks.changecolor;
   
   import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
   import android.graphics.Color;
   import android.graphics.drawable.ColorDrawable;
   import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
   
   public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
   
       @Override
       protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
       {
           super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
           setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
   
           // Define ActionBar object
           ActionBar actionBar;
           actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
   
           // Define ColorDrawable object and parse color
           // using parseColor method
           // with color hash code as its parameter
           ColorDrawable colorDrawable
               = new ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#0F9D58"));
   
           // Set BackgroundDrawable
           actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(colorDrawable);
       }
   }
   

   activity_main.xml

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   
   <!--Relative Layout-->
   <RelativeLayout 
       xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:id="@+id/relativelayout">
   
       <!--Text View-->
      <TextView
          android:layout_width="wrap_content"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:textColor="#0F9D58"
          android:textSize="30dp"
          android:text="Geeks for Geeks"
          android:layout_centerInParent="true"/>
   </RelativeLayout>
   

Output:

• Default color of action Bar:

  

• In Main Activity color of Action Bar is changed to hash code defined in above code.