Android transparent status bar and actionbar

I've done a few researches on this topic and I couldn't find a complete solution so, step by step and with some trial and error, I finally find out how can we achieve these results: having a transparent or coloured Actionbar and Statusbar. See my answer bellow.

I'm developing an app that needs to look similar in all devices with >= API14 when it comes to actionbar and statusbar customization. I've finally found a solution and since it took a bit of my time I'll share it to save some of yours. We start by using an appcompat-21 dependency.

Transparent Actionbar:

values/styles.xml:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
...
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.ActionBar.Transparent" parent="AppTheme">
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
    <item name="colorPrimary">@android:color/transparent</item>
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.ActionBar" parent="AppTheme">
    <item name="windowActionBarOverlay">false</item>
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/default_yellow</item>
</style>

values-v21/styles.xml:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    ...
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.ActionBar.Transparent" parent="AppTheme">
    <item name="colorPrimary">@android:color/transparent</item>
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.ActionBar" parent="AppTheme">
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/bg_colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/default_yellow</item>
</style>

Now you can use these themes in your AndroidManifest.xml to specify which activities will have a transparent or colored ActionBar:

    <activity
            android:name=".MyTransparentActionbarActivity"
            android:theme="@style/AppTheme.ActionBar.Transparent"/>

    <activity
            android:name=".MyColoredActionbarActivity"
            android:theme="@style/AppTheme.ActionBar"/>

Note: in API>=21 to get the Actionbar transparent you need to get the Statusbar transparent too, otherwise will not respect your colour styles and will stay light-grey.

Transparent Statusbar (only works with API>=19):
This one it's pretty simple just use the following code:

protected void setStatusBarTranslucent(boolean makeTranslucent) {
		if (makeTranslucent) {
			getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TRANSLUCENT_STATUS);
		} else {
			getWindow().clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TRANSLUCENT_STATUS);
		}
	}

But you'll notice a funky result:

This happens because when the Statusbar is transparent the layout will use its height. To prevent this we just need to:

SOLUTION ONE:
Add this line android:fitsSystemWindows="true" in your layout view container of whatever you want to be placed bellow the Actionbar:

    ...
        <LinearLayout
                android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent">
            ...
        </LinearLayout>
    ...

SOLUTION TWO:
Add a few lines to our previous method:

protected void setStatusBarTranslucent(boolean makeTranslucent) {
		View v = findViewById(R.id.bellow_actionbar);
		if (v != null) {
			int paddingTop = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT ? MyScreenUtils.getStatusBarHeight(this) : 0;
			TypedValue tv = new TypedValue();
			getTheme().resolveAttribute(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.attr.actionBarSize, tv, true);
			paddingTop += TypedValue.complexToDimensionPixelSize(tv.data, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
			v.setPadding(0, makeTranslucent ? paddingTop : 0, 0, 0);
		}
		
		if (makeTranslucent) {
			getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TRANSLUCENT_STATUS);
		} else {
			getWindow().clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TRANSLUCENT_STATUS);
		}
	}

Where R.id.bellow_actionbar will be the layout container view id of whatever we want to be placed bellow the Actionbar:

...
    <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/bellow_actionbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent">
        ...
    </LinearLayout>
...

So this is it, it think I'm not forgetting something. In this example I didn't use a Toolbar but I think it'll have the same result. This is how I customize my Actionbar:

@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		View vg = getActionBarView();
		getWindow().requestFeature(vg != null ? Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR : Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
		
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(getContentView());
		
		if (vg != null) {
			getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(vg, new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT));
			getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
			getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
			getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
			getSupportActionBar().setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(false);
		}
		setStatusBarTranslucent(true);
	}

Note: this is an abstract class that extends ActionBarActivity
Hope it helps!

It supports after KITKAT. Just add following code inside onCreate method of your Activity. No need any modifications to Manifest file.

 if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
                Window w = getWindow(); // in Activity's onCreate() for instance
                w.setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS);
            }

Just add these lines of code to your activity/fragment java file:

getWindow().setFlags(
    WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS,
    WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS
);