Question

I have the exact same problem as this post. I want my custom notifications text style to match the default notifications (Im just going to add a few extra views). Unfortunately I don’t fully understand the accepted answer. I think I am meant to add to the XML code but not sure exactly what…

The accepted answer says”
The solution is to use built-in styles. The style you need is TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent. Just apply this style and it will set the default text color for notifications (don’t forget android: prefix, of course).
“

I cant get this to work! In my custom notification below the line “android:textAppearance=”?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge” works (as it enlargens the text) but does not give the desired effect.

Here is my custom XML code…

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/notImage"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginRight="10dp" 
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>

<TextView 
    android:id="@+id/notContentTitle"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_toRightOf ="@id/notImage" 
    android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />

<TextView 
    android:id="@+id/notContentText"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_below ="@id/notContentTitle"
 />

Custom notification layouts and text colors

Answer 1

Finally figured out what I was doing wrong… (basically I was using features from API 9 when I am only developing on API 8).

Firstly, to use a default (platform) style use…

style = “@android:style/TextAppearance.Small”

For example…

<RelativeLayout 
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:padding="3dp">

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/notImage"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginRight="10dp" 
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"/>

<TextView 
    android:id="@+id/notContentTitle"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_toRightOf ="@id/notImage" 
    android:textStyle="bold"
    style = "@android:style/TextAppearance.Medium"/>

<TextView 
    android:id="@+id/notContentText"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_below ="@id/notImage"
    style = "@android:style/TextAppearance.Small"    />

Secondly to use the StatusBar default style use..

style = “@android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent” or

style = “@android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent.Title”,

etc, etc.

For example,

    <TextView 
    android:id="@+id/notContentText"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_below ="@id/notImage"
    style = "@android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent"   />

In my case this caused an error because I am still developing with Android 2.2 (API 8) whilst these StatusBar styles are for API 9 onwards. (I know I should update :))

Useful links are;

Android.com Applying Styles and Themes, Using Platform Styles and Themes

Android.com R.style reference

StackOverflow.com Custom notification layouts and text colours

Android.com Android API levels