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Android Build a Simple Android App with Java Creating the Screen Layout Setting Colors

Majdi Jaigirdar
Majdi Jaigirdar
4,421 Points
Posted by Majdi Jaigirdar
Majdi Jaigirdar
4,421 Points

Background colour doesn't change, stays as default purple

The colour of the button doesn't change to white when I change it. And the android white doesn't seem to be alliable from the resource page, so I had to add it from to the XML code, this is what my button view code looks like:

<Button
        android:id="@+id/showFactButton"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_marginBottom="1dp"
        android:background="@android:color/white"
        android:text="Show another fun fact" />

However the button is still the default purple, I think the issue might have to do with Aneroids new 'material you' colour theme? When I tried to use @color/white or #FFFFFFFF it was still purple. When I run the app on my Pixel 6 , the button is a light purple colour instead.

Any ideas on why this is happening and how to change or fix this?

Edit & answer: I got help from ChatGPT So basically newer version of android use android:backgroundTint to define the button backgrounds, so I need to use: android:backgroundTint="@color/white" Instead of android:background="@android:color/white"

Majdi Jaigirdar
Majdi Jaigirdar
4,421 Points
Majdi Jaigirdar
Majdi Jaigirdar
4,421 Points

Answer: I got help from ChatGPT, it said:

"In newer versions of Android, the button color is typically defined using the backgroundTint attribute instead of the background attribute. The background attribute is used for setting the background drawable for the button, while backgroundTint is used to specify the color tint applied to the background.

To change the button color to white, you can modify your code as follows:

<Button
    android:id="@+id/showFactButton"
    ...
    android:backgroundTint="@color/white"
    android:text="Show another fun fact" />

Make sure you have a white color defined in your colors.xml file under the res/values/ directory. If you don't have it, you can add it manually:

<color name="white">#FFFFFF</color>

With these changes, the button should now have a white background color."

So basically new version of android use android:backgroundTint to define the button backgrounds, so I need to use:

android:backgroundTint="@color/white"