Android status bar color

September 8, 2018 12:09 PM

Is there a way to control the color of Android's status bar?

I had a Samsung Galaxy S7 that got pretty badly beat up, so I filed an insurance claim to have it replaced. I got a replacement S7. Not surprisingly, the result of the new phone updating itself to the current version of Android has resulted in a phone that is not quite exactly the same as the previous phone.

In particular, the status bar in some apps is not the color I want it to be. Here's a picture of the status bar in Chrome, which is the one bothering me the most. On my old phone I had somehow made the status bar black.

Can users control the color of the status bar? Searching the internets for this, I've found lots of info about how developers can control it in their own apps or websites, but nothing for users.

posted by counterfeitfake to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Nova Launcher is great for customizing just about everything on Android phones, available in the Play Store. Not sure if the free version allows access to the notification bar settings as I paid (I think $5 CAD) for the app but it's the first thing I install on any new phone. Just tested to see if I could make the bar black and it works (can also do transparent so your phone background takes up the full screen, that's my preference). If you end up getting the app go to the Look and Feel menu.
posted by mireille at 12:37 PM on September 8, 2018

Response by poster: I use Nova Launcher and it's great, and I thought it was going to be the answer, but as far as I can tell it doesn't take care of this. In fact, even if I turn the notification bar off altogether, it will still show up (white) in Chrome.
posted by counterfeitfake at 4:34 PM on September 8, 2018

Is your phone rooted? If it is, there are several Xposed modules that allow you to modify the color (and more) of the status bar. (I do not have my phone with me right now, but I will look for the specific module later.) I do not know if it can be done natively in Samsung's version of Android.

What version of Android is your replacement phone on? What was the badly beaten up one? The S7 is a few years old. I have some doubt that there was an update to the ROM that caused this change or better said, that cannot be adjusted back to the way you had it. Did you start the new phone from scratch or did you use a backup of the old phone? If you did not use a backup and have one, I would try to restore from backup and hope that the setting is in there.
posted by AugustWest at 6:11 PM on September 8, 2018

I have some doubt that there was an update to the ROM that caused this change or better said, that cannot be adjusted back to the way you had it.

FWIW, I recently replaced my broken Nexus with the same model, restored from backup, and had exactly the same situation - now I have a white status bar instead of a black one when I use Chrome. I tried to change the setting, but didn't have any luck (even with Nova Launcher).

Sorry I don't have a solution, but I can at least tell you that it's not a problem unique to the Samsung Galaxy.
posted by Umami Dearest at 9:16 PM on September 8, 2018