How do I change the android actionbar title and icon

Question

I'm trying to do some things on the ActionBar in Android.

I've already added new items in the right side of the action bar.

How can I change the left side of the action bar? I want to change the icon and the text, and I want to add a "Back Button" in the action bar for the other screens

Android Action Bar

score 550 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 26 '15 at 10:12

550

This is very simple to accomplish

If you want to change it in code, call:

setTitle("My new title");
getActionBar().setIcon(R.drawable.my_icon);

And set the values to whatever you please.

Or, in the Android manifest XML file:

<activity android:name=".MyActivity" 
       android:icon="@drawable/my_icon" 
       android:label="My new title" />

To enable the back button in your app use:

 getActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
 getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

The code should all be placed in your onCreate so that the label/icon changing is transparent to the user, but in reality it can be called anywhere during the activity's lifecycle.

edited Nov 26 '15 at 10:12

davmac

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answered Jan 23 '13 at 15:48

dymmeh

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If you are using the support library to add the actionbar, use `getSupportActionBar` instead of `getActionBar`. – Rick Pastoor Oct 02 '13 at 13:33
3

`getActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true)` uses API level 14 or up, if you just want back button functionality in older as well as newer APIs you just need `getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true)` – Akshat Agarwal Nov 21 '13 at 16:56
3

getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled( true ); before setTitle("123"); – Jose Manuel Abarca Rodríguez Apr 16 '15 at 17:03
If you use the code getActionBar().setIcon(R.drawable.my_icon); can you make it clickable? – Skitty Aug 14 '15 at 06:15
2

@JoseManuelAbarcaRodríguez Thank you, that's what was missing for me. In Kotlin: `supportActionBar?.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(true)` then `supportActionBar?.title = "your title"`. And it has to be done in `onResume`, not in `onCreate`, when creating the activity with `startActivity`. – Eric Aya Feb 26 '20 at 17:53
setTitle(...)???? That's it?????!!!??? WOW. IF ONLY android made it this easy for a million other seemingly simple tasks like, for example, hiding the keyboard... – ONE Jul 30 '20 at 22:31
Setting the title works fine, but setting the icon doesn't work. `getActionBar()` is null and `getSupportActionBar().setIcon(...)` does nothing. – Donald Duck Aug 08 '21 at 15:52

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited May 12 '15 at 04:21

19

To make a single icon be usable by all your action bars you can do this in your Android Manifest.

<application
    android:logo="@drawable/Image">

    ...

</application>

edited May 12 '15 at 04:21

sshashank124

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answered Nov 21 '13 at 16:55

Akshat Agarwal

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thanks- I wanted a different icon for outside the app (as seen in "All apps") and another icon at the left of the action bar. And this worked. Manifest file still has android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" – flobacca May 27 '14 at 15:07
2

This is the right way as it `pre-loads` the icon, programmatically settings icon is slow! – Muhammad Babar Jul 05 '14 at 20:32

Sagar Devanga · Answer 3 · 2016-03-17T07:46:03.610

13

You just need to add these 3 lines of code. Replace the icon with your own icon. If you want to generate icons use this

getSupportActionBar().setHomeAsUpIndicator(R.drawable.icon_back_arrow);
getActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

edited Mar 17 '16 at 07:46

answered Mar 17 '16 at 07:40

Sagar Devanga

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score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 25 '17 at 10:48

In Android 5.0 material design guidelines discourage the use of icon in actionBar

to enable it add the following code

getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);
getSupportActionBar().setLogo(R.mipmap.ic_launcher);
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(true);

credit goes to author of this article

score 9 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 10 '15 at 16:15

9

If you want to change the Action bar title just give the following 1 line code in the onCreate() of your Activity

getActionBar().setTitle("Test");

edited Aug 10 '15 at 16:15

lorenzo-s

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answered Apr 22 '14 at 07:46

Jabbir Basha

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How can I animate this title change? – Srikar Reddy Jun 27 '16 at 06:06

score 8 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 03 '18 at 15:31

8

ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
actionBar.setTitle(getString(R.string.titolo));
actionBar.setIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);

edited Apr 03 '18 at 15:31

Vadim Kotov

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answered Mar 26 '18 at 14:09

Alessandro Caliaro

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score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 23 '13 at 15:48

You can change the icon in your by adding whatever icon you want to your respective drawable folders, then changing this line in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"

to match whatever the name of your icon is in there. Or put your icon as ic_launcher, if they're the same icon. As for what it says, add or change whatever strings match up to that in your res/values/strings.xml file. Then, once again in your AndroidManifest.xml file, change this line:

android:label="@string/app_name"

to whatever the string you have in their. You'll have to do this for the application as a whole, and whichever activities you want, but the lines are the same.

Hope this helps.

What size (dp) should this `android:icon` in activity tag be? — prompteus, Apr 28 '16 at 17:35

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

For that, you can do it in 2 ways: XML or Java. See here: How to change the text on the action bar

So:

XML:

<activity android:name=".Hello_World"
              android:label="This is the Hello World Application">
</activity>

Java:

public class TitleBar extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

       final boolean customTitleSupported = requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);

       setContentView(R.layout.main);


       if ( customTitleSupported ) {
           getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.titlebar);
           }

       final TextView myTitleText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.myTitle);
       if ( myTitleText != null ) {
           myTitleText.setText("NEW TITLE");

           // user can also set color using "Color" and then "Color value constant"
          // myTitleText.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN);
       }
 }
}

To do it from code, you should call `setTitle(CharSequence text)` or `setTitle(int titleRes)`. Don't use `requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE)` unless you are planning to replace the entire title bar with your own custom View. — Karakuri, Jan 23 '13 at 15:48

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Mar 22 '18 at 17:08

3

For set Title :

getActionBar().setTitle("Title");

For set Icon :

getActionBar().setIcon(R.drawable.YOUR_ICON_NAME);

edited Mar 22 '18 at 17:08

Derlin

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answered Jun 03 '16 at 14:15

Bhaumik Sathvara

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 13 '18 at 14:09

3

Add the below code inside an onCreate function in your activity.

setTitle("NewName");

answered Apr 13 '18 at 14:09

Chandrahasa Rai

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score 2 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 17 '17 at 00:02

2

I used the following call inside onNavigationItemSelected:

HomeActivity.this.setTitle(item.getTitle());

edited Aug 17 '17 at 00:02

TriskalJM

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answered Aug 16 '17 at 20:41

AmandaHLA

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score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Sep 23 '18 at 09:32

2

This work for me:

getActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
getActionBar().setHomeAsUpIndicator(R.mipmap.baseline_dehaze_white_24);

edited Sep 23 '18 at 09:32

G. Sliepen

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answered Sep 22 '18 at 18:27

Ram Chhabra

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Abhishek Rajpurohit · Answer 13 · 2018-04-09T06:55:48.517

1

Go to manifest in which specific activity you want to change Action bar Title name and write android:label="Title name"

edited Apr 09 '18 at 06:55

answered Apr 02 '18 at 11:02

Abhishek Rajpurohit

11
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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 23 '13 at 15:50

The action bar title will, by default, use the label of the current activity, but you can also set it programmatically via ActionBar.setTitle().

To implement the "Back" (more precisely, "Up") button functionality you're talking about, read the "Using the App Icon for Navigation" section of the Action Bar developer guide.

Finally, to change the icon, the guide covers that as well. In short, the action bar will display the image supplied in android:icon in your manifest's application or activity element, if there is one. The typical practice is to create an application icon (in all of the various densities you'll need) named ic_launcher.png, and place it in your drawable-* directories.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 15 '15 at 18:16

0

I got non-static method setTitle(CharSequence) cannot be referenced from a static context error because I used setTitle() in static PlaceholderFragment class. I solved it by using getActivity().getActionBar().setTitle("new title");

answered Mar 15 '15 at 18:16

utarid

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 12 '20 at 09:31

0

You can also do as follow :

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main2)
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar)
        setTitle("Activity 2")
    }

answered Jan 12 '20 at 09:31

Naresh Pawar

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score -1 · Answer 17 · answered Mar 27 '19 at 06:19

Go to AndroidManifest.xml file. Find the <application> tag There you can see a attribute

android:label="@string/app_name"

Now go to res > values > strings.xml

Change the

<string name="app_name">MainActivity</string>

to

<string name="app_name">Your Desired Name</string>

Example

AndroidManifest.xml

<application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity android:name=".SubmitForm">

        </activity>
    </application>

strings.xml

<resources>
    <string name="app_name">Your Desired Name</string>
    <string name="action_settings">Settings</string>
</resources>

it change the whole add name – BugsCreator Apr 08 '22 at 08:37 — BugsCreator, Apr 08 '22 at 08:37

How do I change the android actionbar title and icon

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