Newbe Dev Stack

Answer : To use a custom title in your Toolbar all you need to do is remember is that Toolbar is just a fancy ViewGroup so you can add a custom title like so: <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar android:id="@+id/toolbar_top" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize" android:background="@color/action_bar_bkgnd" app:theme="@style/ToolBarTheme" > <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Toolbar Title" android:layout_gravity="center" android:id="@+id/toolbar_title" /> </android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar> This means that you can style the TextView however you would like because it's just a regular TextView . So in your activity you can access the title...

Answer : I'm not sure what API level your trying to target, but if you can use API 23 specific stuff, you can add the following to your AppTheme styles.xml: <item name="android:statusBarColor">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item> <item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">true</item> when android:windowLightStatusBar is set to true, status bar text color will be able to be seen when the status bar color is white, and vice-versa when android:windowLightStatusBar is set to false, status bar text color will be designed to be seen when the status bar color is dark. Example: <!-- Base application theme. --> <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"> <!-- Customize your theme here. --> <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item> <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item> <item name=...