[android] Selected tab's color in Bottom Navigation View

I'm adding a BottomNavigationView to a project, and I would like to have a different text (and icon tint) color for the selected tab (to achieve greying out non-selected tabs effect). Using a different color with android:state_selected="true" in a color selector resource file doesn't seem to work. I also tried having additional item entries with android:state_focused="true" or android:state_enabled="true", no effect unfortunately. Also tried setting the state_selected attribute to false (explicitly) for the default (non-selected) color, with no luck.

Here is how I add the view to my layout:

<android.support.design.widget.BottomNavigationView
        android:id="@+id/bottom_navigation"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        app:itemBackground="@color/silver"
        app:itemIconTint="@color/bnv_tab_item_foreground"
        app:itemTextColor="@color/bnv_tab_item_foreground"
        app:menu="@menu/bottom_nav_bar_menu" />

Here is my color selector (bnv_tab_item_foreground.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:color="@android:color/darker_gray"  />
    <item android:state_selected="true" android:color="@android:color/holo_blue_dark" />
</selector>

And my menu resource (bottom_nav_bar_menu.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_home"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_local_taxi_black_24dp"
        android:title="@string/home" />
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_rides"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_local_airport_black_24dp"
        android:title="@string/rides"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_cafes"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_local_cafe_black_24dp"
        android:title="@string/cafes"/>
    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_hotels"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_local_hotel_black_24dp"
        android:title="@string/hotels"/>

</menu>

I would appreciate any help.

1. Inside res create folder with name color (like drawable)

2. Right click on color folder. Select new-> color resource file-> create color.xml file (bnv_tab_item_foreground) (Figure 1: File Structure)

3. Copy and paste bnv_tab_item_foreground

<android.support.design.widget.BottomNavigationView
            android:id="@+id/navigation"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginEnd="0dp"
            android:layout_marginStart="0dp"
            app:itemBackground="@color/appcolor"//diffrent color
            app:itemIconTint="@color/bnv_tab_item_foreground" //inside folder 2 diff colors
            app:itemTextColor="@color/bnv_tab_item_foreground"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
            app:menu="@menu/navigation" />

bnv_tab_item_foreground:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <item android:state_checked="true" android:color="@color/white" />
        <item android:color="@android:color/darker_gray"  />
    </selector>

Figure 1: File Structure:

If you want to change icons' and texts' colors programmatically:

ColorStateList iconsColorStates = new ColorStateList(
            new int[][]{
                    new int[]{-android.R.attr.state_checked},
                    new int[]{android.R.attr.state_checked}
            },
            new int[]{
                    Color.parseColor("#123456"),
                    Color.parseColor("#654321")
            });

    ColorStateList textColorStates = new ColorStateList(
            new int[][]{
                    new int[]{-android.R.attr.state_checked},
                    new int[]{android.R.attr.state_checked}
            },
            new int[]{
                    Color.parseColor("#123456"),
                    Color.parseColor("#654321")
            });

    navigation.setItemIconTintList(iconsColorStates);
    navigation.setItemTextColor(textColorStates);

In order to set textColor, BottomNavigationView has two style properties you can set directly from the xml:

• itemTextAppearanceActive
• itemTextAppearanceInactive

In your layout.xml file:

<com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView
            android:id="@+id/bnvMainNavigation"
            style="@style/NavigationView"/>
  

In your styles.xml file:

    <style name="NavigationView" parent="Widget.MaterialComponents.BottomNavigationView">
      <item name="itemTextAppearanceActive">@style/ActiveText</item>
      <item name="itemTextAppearanceInactive">@style/InactiveText</item>
    </style>
    <style name="ActiveText">
      <item name="android:textColor">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    </style>
    <style name="InactiveText">
      <item name="android:textColor">@color/colorBaseBlack</item>
    </style>

Instead of creating selector, Best way to create a style.

<style name="AppTheme.BottomBar">
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorAccent</item> 
</style>

and to change the text size, selected or non selected.

<dimen name="design_bottom_navigation_text_size" tools:override="true">11sp</dimen>
<dimen name="design_bottom_navigation_active_text_size" tools:override="true">12sp</dimen>

Enjoy Android!

I am using a com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView (not the same as OP's) and I tried a variety of the suggested solutions above, but the only thing that worked was setting app:itemBackground and app:itemIconTint to my selector color worked for me.

        <com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView
            style="@style/BottomNavigationView"
            android:foreground="?attr/selectableItemBackground"
            android:theme="@style/BottomNavigationView"
            app:itemBackground="@color/tab_color"
            app:itemIconTint="@color/tab_color"
            app:itemTextColor="@color/bottom_navigation_text_color"
            app:labelVisibilityMode="labeled"
            app:menu="@menu/bottom_navigation" />

My color/tab_color.xml uses android:state_checked

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:color="@color/grassSelected" android:state_checked="true" />
    <item android:color="@color/grassBackground" />
</selector>

and I am also using a selected state color for color/bottom_navigation_text_color.xml

Not totally relevant here but for full transparency, my BottomNavigationView style is as follows:

    <style name="BottomNavigationView" parent="Widget.Design.BottomNavigationView">
        <item name="android:layout_width">match_parent</item>
        <item name="android:layout_height">@dimen/bottom_navigation_height</item>
        <item name="android:layout_gravity">bottom</item>
        <item name="android:textSize">@dimen/bottom_navigation_text_size</item>
    </style>

BottomNavigationView uses colorPrimary from the theme applied for the selected tab and it uses android:textColorSecondary for the inactive tab icon tint.

So you can create a style with the prefered primary color and set it as a theme to your BottomNavigationView in an xml layout file.

styles.xml:

 <style name="BottomNavigationTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/active_tab_color</item>
        <item name="android:textColorSecondary">@color/inactive_tab_color</item>
 </style>

your_layout.xml:

<android.support.design.widget.BottomNavigationView
            android:id="@+id/navigation"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:background="?android:attr/windowBackground"
            android:theme="@style/BottomNavigationTheme"
            app:menu="@menu/navigation" />

This will work:

setItemBackgroundResource(android.R.color.holo_red_light)

It's too late to answer but might be helpful for someone. I was doing a very silly mistake, I was using a selector file named as bottom_color_nav.xml for Select and unselect color change but still it was not reflecting any color change in BottomNavigationView.

Then I realize, I was returning false in onNavigationItemSelected method. It will work fine if you'll return true in this method.

Try using android:state_enabled rather than android:state_selected for the selector item attributes.