Android M Light and Dark status bar programmatically - how to make it dark again?

AndroidUser InterfaceAndroid 6.0-MarshmallowAndroid Statusbar

Android Problem Overview


In the Android M we have ability to make status bar icons dark. To do that we can specify attribute in the theme's xml:

<item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">true</item>

OR we cat set it at runtime with this code:

View someView = findViewById(R.id.some_view);
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
    someView.setSystemUiVisibility(someView.getSystemUiVisibility() | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR);
}

And it actually works fine. But question is how to properly set a status bar mode to dark at runtime?

I already tried these variants:

// Makes status bar mode dark, but also hides it along with all navigation views. 
someView.setSystemUiVisibility(someView.getSystemUiVisibility() | ~View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR);

// Does nothing 
someView.setSystemUiVisibility(someView.getSystemUiVisibility() & ~View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR);

// Also does nothing 
someView.setSystemUiVisibility(someView.getSystemUiVisibility() ^ View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR);

So how it can be done the right way?

Android Solutions


Solution 1 - Android

The solution posted by @Aracem is valid but, doesn't work if you try change also the background color of the status bar. In my case I do it in the following way.

To enable windowLightStatusBar(programatically,inside a Utils class for example):

 public static void setLightStatusBar(View view,Activity activity){


            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {

                int flags = view.getSystemUiVisibility();
                flags |= View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR;
                view.setSystemUiVisibility(flags);
                activity.getWindow().setStatusBarColor(Color.WHITE); 
            }
}

To restore to StatusBar to the previous state:

  public static void clearLightStatusBar(Activity activity) {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
            Window window = activity.getWindow();
            window.setStatusBarColor(ContextCompat
                 .getColor(activity,R.color.colorPrimaryDark)); 
        }
    }

Restoring the color of the status bar is enough, it restores also the icons colors. VERY IMPORTANT: The restore operation will not occur until the view used in setLightStatusBar(View view..) dissapears(that is, view.getVisibility()==GONE|INVISIBLE) from the screen.

Solution 2 - Android

According to Nick Butcher's project "Plaid"

public static void clearLightStatusBar(@NonNull View view) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        int flags = view.getSystemUiVisibility();
        flags &= ~View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR;
        view.setSystemUiVisibility(flags);
    }
}

You can find this file here.

Solution 3 - Android

I base on @Aracem and @Carlos Hernández Gil but I think it will easy to understand if we use bitwise XOR (^ operator in Java)

private void setLightStatusBar(Activity activity) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        int flags = activity.getWindow().getDecorView().getSystemUiVisibility(); // get current flag
        flags |= View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR;   // add LIGHT_STATUS_BAR to flag
        activity.getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(flags); 
        activity.getWindow().setStatusBarColor(Color.GRAY); // optional
    }
}

private void clearLightStatusBar(Activity activity) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        int flags = activity.getWindow().getDecorView().getSystemUiVisibility(); // get current flag
        flags = flags ^ View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR; // use XOR here for remove LIGHT_STATUS_BAR from flags
        activity.getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(flags);
        activity.getWindow().setStatusBarColor(Color.GREEN); // optional
    }
}

Explain

First, look at SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR and setSystemUiVisibility

/**
 * Flag for {@link #setSystemUiVisibility(int)}: Requests the status bar to draw in a mode that
 * is compatible with light status bar backgrounds.
 */
public static final int SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR = 0x00002000;

public void setSystemUiVisibility(int visibility) {
    if (visibility != mSystemUiVisibility) {
        mSystemUiVisibility = visibility;
        ...
    }
}

I think 2 lines code below is quite hard to understand

flags |= View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR; // for set light status bar
flags = flags ^ View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR; // for clear light status bar

At first look, I just think we can use simple like

flags = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR; // for set light status bar
flags = 0; // for clear light status bar (0 <=> LIGHT_STATUS_BAR <=> default systemUiVisibility)

But we should use | and ^ because
Example, we want to set both status bar and navigationbar to light, then we will use

flags = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR | View.View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR;
activity.getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(flags);

When we don't want status bar is light anymore, we can use

flags = View.View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR;
activity.getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(flags);

OR

flags = activity.getWindow().getDecorView().getSystemUiVisibility();
flags = flags ^ View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR; 
activity.getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(flags);

To know more why we use | and ^, I think the tutorial below may help https://medium.com/@JakobUlbrich/flag-attributes-in-android-how-to-use-them-ac4ec8aee7d1 Here is my understand. Hope this help

Solution 4 - Android

The way I switched light and dark for APIs 23-30 was a little different than these. This is a kotlin version

Since I was using Compose with the Crossfade animation to change themes, in some cases would call this function twice, hence making xor undo itself. An alternative is an inverse or operation. My light theme switcher-thing ended up looking like this

@Suppress("DEPRECATION")
fun invertInsets(darkTheme: Boolean, window: Window) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 30) {
        //Correct way of doing things
        val statusBar = APPEARANCE_LIGHT_STATUS_BARS
        val navBar = APPEARANCE_LIGHT_NAVIGATION_BARS
        if (!darkTheme) {
            window.insetsController?.setSystemBarsAppearance(statusBar, statusBar)
            window.insetsController?.setSystemBarsAppearance(navBar, navBar)
        } else {
            window.insetsController?.setSystemBarsAppearance(0, statusBar)
            window.insetsController?.setSystemBarsAppearance(0, navBar)
        }
    } else {
        // Does bitwise operations (or to add, inverse or to remove)
        // This is depreciated but the new version is API 30+ so I should have this here
        val flags = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR or
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 26) View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_NAVIGATION_BAR else 0

        if (!darkTheme) {
            window.decorView.systemUiVisibility = 
                window.decorView.systemUiVisibility or flags
        } else {
            window.decorView.systemUiVisibility = 
                (window.decorView.systemUiVisibility.inv() or flags).inv()
        }
    }
}

The bit for API 30+ is what's not depreciated, but realistically not many phones are at API 30 so there's also the bit for lower APIs

It just calculates flags (since setting LIGHT_NAVIGATION_BARS is API 26+) beforehand for conciseness and then either definitively sets or resets those exact flags. No and or xor funny buisiness. or will always set the flags to 1, and the inverse or thing will always set the flags to 0. This is only possible because both SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR and SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_NAVIGATION_BAR are one bit, however. Otherwise it would probably need to use xor.

Solution 5 - Android

I put together this simple utility object that allows you to change status bar color and light status bar on/off for within any fragment. However, this relies on using the Android Jetpack Navigation component for navigation (Kotlin):

object StatusBarUtil {
    fun changeStatusBarColor(activity: Activity, @ColorInt color: Int, lightStatusBar: Boolean) {
        activity.window?.let { win ->
            val nav = Navigation.findNavController(activity, R.id.your_nav_host_fragmen /* TODO: Use the ID of your nav host fragment */)
            val currentDest = nav.currentDestination?.id
            val oldColor = win.statusBarColor
            val oldFlags = win.decorView.systemUiVisibility
            win.statusBarColor = color

            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
                var flags = oldFlags
                flags = if (lightStatusBar) {
                    flags or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR
                } else {
                    flags and View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR.inv()
                }
                win.decorView.systemUiVisibility = flags
            }

            nav.addOnNavigatedListener { _, dest ->
                if (dest.id != currentDest) {
                    win.statusBarColor = oldColor
                    win.decorView.systemUiVisibility = oldFlags
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

To use this, call the following from within any fragment's onViewCreated:

StatusBarUtil.changeStatusBarColor(requireActivity(), someDarkColor, false)

Solution 6 - Android

There is a slight change in API 30 of the SDK and now the light status bar appearance is controlled by WindowInsetsController, which can be obtained from a Window. Below is a sample method (within an Activity) in Kotlin, combining the new API with the previously used View.setSystemUiVisibility for older Android SDK versions. Bear in mind that this only changes the system icons appearance of the status bar and the actual color of the status bar can still be set by Window.setStatusBarColor.

@Suppress("DEPRECATION")
private fun setSystemUiLightStatusBar(isLightStatusBar: Boolean) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.R) {
            val systemUiAppearance = if (isLightStatusBar) {
                WindowInsetsController.APPEARANCE_LIGHT_STATUS_BARS
            } else {
                0
            }
            window.insetsController?.setSystemBarsAppearance(systemUiAppearance,
                                                             WindowInsetsController.APPEARANCE_LIGHT_STATUS_BARS)
        } else {
            val systemUiVisibilityFlags = if (isLightStatusBar) {
                window.decorView.systemUiVisibility or SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR
            } else {
                window.decorView.systemUiVisibility and SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR.inv()
            }
            window.decorView.systemUiVisibility = systemUiVisibilityFlags
        }
    }
}

Solution 7 - Android

Based on @phan-van-linh answer, I wrote this class for Xamarin Android

public static class ActivityExtensions
{
	public static void SetLightStatusBar(this Activity activity)
	{
		int flags = (int)activity.Window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility; // get current flag
		flags |= (int)SystemUiFlags.LightStatusBar;   // add LIGHT_STATUS_BAR to flag
		activity.Window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility = (StatusBarVisibility)flags;
		//activity.Window.SetStatusBarColor(Color.GRAY); // optional
	}

	public static void ClearLightStatusBar(this Activity activity)
	{
		int flags = (int)activity.Window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility; // get current flag
		flags = flags ^ (int)SystemUiFlags.LightStatusBar; // use XOR here for remove LIGHT_STATUS_BAR from flags
		activity.Window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility = (StatusBarVisibility)flags;
		//activity.Window.setStatusBarColor(Color.GREEN); // optional
	}
}

Solution 8 - Android

i will make some changes in above answers.

make a class

 public class DarkStatusBar {
    public static void setLightStatusBar(View view, Activity activity){

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {

            int flags = view.getSystemUiVisibility();
            flags |= View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR;
            view.setSystemUiVisibility(flags);
            activity.getWindow().setStatusBarColor(Color.WHITE);
        }
    }
}

and Call it wherever you want like this

        Window window = getWindow();
        View view = window.getDecorView();
        DarkStatusBar.setLightStatusBar(view,this);

Solution 9 - Android

To change to light status bar use:-

 if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) 
     activity?.window?.decorView?.systemUiVisibility = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR
        

To change back to dark status bar :-

 if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) 
     activity?.window?.decorView?.systemUiVisibility = 0

Solution 10 - Android

systemUiVisibility - is deprecated now. You can use WindowInsetsControllerCompat instead.

private val insetsController: WindowInsetsControllerCompat? by lazy {
    activity?.window?.let { window -> WindowInsetsControllerCompat(window, window.decorView) }
}

private fun setLightStatusBar(light: Boolean) {
    insetsController?.isAppearanceLightStatusBars = light
}

Solution 11 - Android

Set blue background status bar with light text color kotlin version

fun setBlueStatusBarColor(window: Window, context: Context) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
            window.statusBarColor = context.getColor(R.color.colorBlue)
        }else {
            window.statusBarColor = context.resources.getColor(R.color.colorBlue)
        }

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
            var flags: Int = window.decorView.systemUiVisibility
            flags = flags and View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR
            window.decorView.systemUiVisibility = flags
        }
    }
}

Solution 12 - Android

/**
 * Changes color of the status bar icons
 * @param isLight if true - shows dark icons, light else
 */
fun setStatusBarUiTheme(activity: Activity?, isLight: Boolean) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        activity?.window?.decorView?.let {
            it.systemUiVisibility = if (isLight)
                it.systemUiVisibility or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR // dark icons
            else
                it.systemUiVisibility and View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR.inv() // light icons
        }
    }
}

Solution 13 - Android

In res/styles.xml

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">
    <item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">true</item>
    .......
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.DarkStatus" parent="AppTheme" tools:targetApi="23" >
    <item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">false</item>
    <item name="android:statusBarColor" >@color/status_bar_color</item>
</style>

In code

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setTheme(R.style.AppTheme_DarkStatus);  //To set DarkStatusBar theme
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_drawer);
    ....
}

Solution 14 - Android

It works for me

fun Activity.clearLightStatusBar() {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        val window = window
        window.statusBarColor = ContextCompat
            .getColor(this, R.color.ultramarine_blue)
    }
}

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionudenfoxView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - AndroidCarlos Hernández GilView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - AndroidAracemView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - AndroidLinhView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - AndroidOrlandoView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - AndroidhssonView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - AndroidVassil AngelovView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - AndroidgianlucaparadiseView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Androidroshan posakyaView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - AndroidSantanu SurView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - AndroidTimur PanzhievView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - AndroidAbduhafizView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - AndroidAnton KaliturinView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - AndroidSaravananView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - AndroidxaldarofView Answer on Stackoverflow