Android 5.0: how to change recent apps title color?

Question

I'm using AppCompat and my theme is extending Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar.

When in Android 5 Lollipop and I press the recent apps button, my app appears with a dark title instead of a white title in the ActionBar.

When I'm inside the app everything looks fine.

What can I do to change the title color in the recent apps view?

EDIT: just figured out that if I use a darker colorPrimary, the title becomes white. I still need a way to force the white title with the original color.

Answer 1

You can't force the text color, it is auto generated (either white/black) based on your colorPrimary color.

Answer 2

I also looked into this and the best way I could find was (suggestion from MrEngineer13) setting my recents app color to the 600-value of my primary color:

Bitmap bm = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), app_icon);
TaskDescription taskDesc = new TaskDescription(getString(R.string.app_name), bm, getResources().getColor(R.color.primary_600));
MainActivity.setTaskDescription(taskDesc);

If you look closely at the Android 5.0 contacts app, you can see that Google themselves is also doing something similar:

Therefore I believe it is impossible to change the title color yourself, but Android will choose a good one for you. (which will also allow Android to change it for accessibility reasons,...)

Answer 3

To change the color/title/icon you just need to use the following:

TaskDescription tDesc = new TaskDescription(mTitle, mIcon, mColor);
MainActivity.setTaskDescription(tDesc);