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How to align action bar title to centre without using custom view

I want to align the action bar title to centre without the help of custom view . I would appreciate any help.
Without using the custom view, modifying only default action bar title

You can align the title to the center when you use ActionBar, but you can use Toolbar to do this.
Toolbar is more useful and easier than ActionBar, you can use this layout to define the center title TextView for you activity:
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="40dip">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:text="#string/app_name" />
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
And use this code for a back button:
protected void onCreate(#Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
super.setContentView(R.layout.activity_toolbar);
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.single_toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
if(actionBar != null)
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
}
#Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
switch (item.getItemId()) {
case android.R.id.home:
onBackPressed();
return true;
}
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
You also need to override onCreateOptionsMenu method for the menu, and you can refer to this project : chrisbanes/cheesesquare.

Ok, You can try this:
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
app:popupTheme="#style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" >
<TextView
android:textColor="#fff"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:text="#string/app_name" />
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
And remember to add this line in your activity's java code:
getSupportActionBar.setTitle("");

It seems there is no way to do this without custom view. You can get the title view:
View decor = getWindow().getDecorView();
TextView title = (TextView) decor.findViewById(getResources().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", "android"));
But changing of gravity or layout_gravity doesn't have an effect. The problem in the ActionBarView, which layout its children by itself so changing of layout params of its children also doesn't have an effect. To see this excecute following code:
ViewGroup actionBar = (ViewGroup) decor.findViewById(getResources().getIdentifier("action_bar", "id", "android"));
View v = actionBar.getChildAt(0);
ActionBar.LayoutParams p = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
p.gravity= Gravity.CENTER;
v.setLayoutParams(p);
v.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLACK);

Android toolbar center title and custom font

I'm trying to figure out the right way to use a custom font for the toolbar title, and center it in the toolbar (client requirement).
At the moment, i'm using the good old ActionBar, and I was setting the title to empty value, and using setCustomView to put my custom font TextView and center it using ActionBar.LayoutParams.
Is there a better way to do that? Using the new Toolbar as my ActionBar.

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="?android: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 like so:
Toolbar toolbarTop = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar_top);
TextView mTitle = (TextView) toolbarTop.findViewById(R.id.toolbar_title);

This's just to help to join all pieces using #MrEngineer13 answer with #Jonik and #Rick Sanchez comments with the right order to help to achieve title centered easly!!
The layout with TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title :
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
app:popupTheme="#style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/toolbar_title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
style="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title"
android:layout_gravity="center" />
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
The way to achieve with the right order:
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
TextView mTitle = (TextView) toolbar.findViewById(R.id.toolbar_title);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
mTitle.setText(toolbar.getTitle());
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
Please don't forget to upvote #MrEngineer13 answer !!!
Here is a sample project ToolbarCenterTitleSample
Hope to help somebody else ;)

The ToolBar title is stylable. Any customization you make has to be made in the theme. I'll give you an example.
Toolbar layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
style="#style/ToolBarStyle.Event"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
android:minHeight="#dimen/abc_action_bar_default_height_material" />
Styles:
<style name="ToolBarStyle" parent="ToolBarStyle.Base"/>
<style name="ToolBarStyle.Base" parent="">
<item name="popupTheme">#style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light</item>
<item name="theme">#style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="ToolBarStyle.Event" parent="ToolBarStyle">
<item name="titleTextAppearance">#style/TextAppearance.Widget.Event.Toolbar.Title</item>
</style>
<style name="TextAppearance.Widget.Event.Toolbar.Title" parent="TextAppearance.Widget.AppCompat.Toolbar.Title">
<!--Any text styling can be done here-->
<item name="android:textStyle">normal</item>
<item name="android:textSize">#dimen/event_title_text_size</item>
</style>

we don't have direct access to the ToolBar title TextView so we use reflection to access it.
private TextView getActionBarTextView() {
TextView titleTextView = null;
try {
Field f = mToolBar.getClass().getDeclaredField("mTitleTextView");
f.setAccessible(true);
titleTextView = (TextView) f.get(mToolBar);
} catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
}
return titleTextView;
}

Define the following class:
public class CenteredToolbar extends Toolbar {
private TextView centeredTitleTextView;
public CenteredToolbar(Context context) {
super(context);
}
public CenteredToolbar(Context context, #Nullable AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
}
public CenteredToolbar(Context context, #Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
}
#Override
public void setTitle(#StringRes int resId) {
String s = getResources().getString(resId);
setTitle(s);
}
#Override
public void setTitle(CharSequence title) {
getCenteredTitleTextView().setText(title);
}
#Override
public CharSequence getTitle() {
return getCenteredTitleTextView().getText().toString();
}
public void setTypeface(Typeface font) {
getCenteredTitleTextView().setTypeface(font);
}
private TextView getCenteredTitleTextView() {
if (centeredTitleTextView == null) {
centeredTitleTextView = new TextView(getContext());
centeredTitleTextView.setTypeface(...);
centeredTitleTextView.setSingleLine();
centeredTitleTextView.setEllipsize(TextUtils.TruncateAt.END);
centeredTitleTextView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
centeredTitleTextView.setTextAppearance(getContext(), R.style.TextAppearance_AppCompat_Widget_ActionBar_Title);
Toolbar.LayoutParams lp = new Toolbar.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
lp.gravity = Gravity.CENTER;
centeredTitleTextView.setLayoutParams(lp);
addView(centeredTitleTextView);
}
return centeredTitleTextView;
}
}
...and then just use it instead of regular Toolbar like this:
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/colorAccent">
<your.packagename.here.CenteredToolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:theme="?attr/actionBarTheme"
app:title="#string/reset_password_page_title"/>
<!-- Other views -->
</RelativeLayout>
You still need these 2 lines of code in your Activity (as with standard Toolbar):
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewByid(R.id.toolbar); // note that your activity doesn't need to know that it is actually a custom Toolbar
setSupportActionBar(binding.toolbar);
That's it! You don't need to hide the standard left-aligned title, don't need to duplicate the same XML code over and over, etc., just use CenteredToolbar like if it was default Toolbar. You can also set your custom font programatically since you now have direct access to the TextView. Hope this helps.

MaterialToolbar from Material Components 1.4.0-alpha02 now has the ability to center the toolbar's title by setting the titleCentered attribute to true:
<com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout
android:id="#+id/appBarLayout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar
android:id="#+id/topAppBar"
style="#style/Widget.MaterialComponents.Toolbar.Primary"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
app:titleCentered="true" />
</com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout>

Here is title text dependant approach to find TextView instance from Toolbar.
public static TextView getToolbarTitleView(ActionBarActivity activity, Toolbar toolbar){
ActionBar actionBar = activity.getSupportActionBar();
CharSequence actionbarTitle = null;
if(actionBar != null)
actionbarTitle = actionBar.getTitle();
actionbarTitle = TextUtils.isEmpty(actionbarTitle) ? toolbar.getTitle() : actionbarTitle;
if(TextUtils.isEmpty(actionbarTitle)) return null;
// can't find if title not set
for(int i= 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++){
View v = toolbar.getChildAt(i);
if(v != null && v instanceof TextView){
TextView t = (TextView) v;
CharSequence title = t.getText();
if(!TextUtils.isEmpty(title) && actionbarTitle.equals(title) && t.getId() == View.NO_ID){
//Toolbar does not assign id to views with layout params SYSTEM, hence getId() == View.NO_ID
//in same manner subtitle TextView can be obtained.
return t;
}
}
}
return null;
}

No one has mentioned this, but there are some attributes for Toolbar:
app:titleTextColor for setting the title text color
app:titleTextAppearance for setting the title text appearance
app:titleMargin for setting the margin
And there are other specific-side margins such as marginStart, etc.

I use this solution:
static void centerToolbarTitle(#NonNull final Toolbar toolbar) {
final CharSequence title = toolbar.getTitle();
final ArrayList<View> outViews = new ArrayList<>(1);
toolbar.findViewsWithText(outViews, title, View.FIND_VIEWS_WITH_TEXT);
if (!outViews.isEmpty()) {
final TextView titleView = (TextView) outViews.get(0);
titleView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
final Toolbar.LayoutParams layoutParams = (Toolbar.LayoutParams) titleView.getLayoutParams();
layoutParams.width = ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT;
toolbar.requestLayout();
//also you can use titleView for changing font: titleView.setTypeface(Typeface);
}
}

Without toolbar TextView we can customize font by using below code
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
or
getActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
public void updateActionbar(String title){
SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString(title);
spannableString.setSpan(new TypefaceSpanString(this, "futurastdmedium.ttf"),
0, spannableString.length(),
Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
mToolbar.setTitle(spannableString);
}

public class TestActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private Toolbar toolbar;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
super.setContentView(R.layout.activity_test);
toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.tool_bar); // Attaching the layout to the toolbar object
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
customizeToolbar(toolbar);
}
public void customizeToolbar(Toolbar toolbar){
// Save current title and subtitle
final CharSequence originalTitle = toolbar.getTitle();
final CharSequence originalSubtitle = toolbar.getSubtitle();
// Temporarily modify title and subtitle to help detecting each
toolbar.setTitle("title");
toolbar.setSubtitle("subtitle");
for(int i = 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++){
View view = toolbar.getChildAt(i);
if(view instanceof TextView){
TextView textView = (TextView) view;
if(textView.getText().equals("title")){
// Customize title's TextView
Toolbar.LayoutParams params = new Toolbar.LayoutParams(Toolbar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, Toolbar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
params.gravity = Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL;
textView.setLayoutParams(params);
// Apply custom font using the Calligraphy library
Typeface typeface = TypefaceUtils.load(getAssets(), "fonts/myfont-1.otf");
textView.setTypeface(typeface);
} else if(textView.getText().equals("subtitle")){
// Customize subtitle's TextView
Toolbar.LayoutParams params = new Toolbar.LayoutParams(Toolbar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, Toolbar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
params.gravity = Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL;
textView.setLayoutParams(params);
// Apply custom font using the Calligraphy library
Typeface typeface = TypefaceUtils.load(getAssets(), "fonts/myfont-2.otf");
textView.setTypeface(typeface);
}
}
}
// Restore title and subtitle
toolbar.setTitle(originalTitle);
toolbar.setSubtitle(originalSubtitle);
}
}

Layout:
<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="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Toolbar Title"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:gravity="center"
android:id="#+id/toolbar_title" />
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
Code:
Toolbar mToolbar = parent.findViewById(R.id.toolbar_top);
TextView mToolbarCustomTitle = parent.findViewById(R.id.toolbar_title);
//setup width of custom title to match in parent toolbar
mToolbar.postDelayed(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run ()
{
int maxWidth = mToolbar.getWidth();
int titleWidth = mToolbarCustomTitle.getWidth();
int iconWidth = maxWidth - titleWidth;
if (iconWidth > 0)
{
//icons (drawer, menu) are on left and right side
int width = maxWidth - iconWidth * 2;
mToolbarCustomTitle.setMinimumWidth(width);
mToolbarCustomTitle.getLayoutParams().width = width;
}
}
}, 0);

A very quick and easy way to set a custom font is to use a custom titleTextAppearance with a fontFamily:
Add to styles.xml:
<style name="ToolbarTitle" parent="TextAppearance.Widget.AppCompat.Toolbar.Title">
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#FF202230</item>
<item name="android:fontFamily">#font/varela_round_regular</item>
</style>
In your res folder create a font folder (Ex: varela_round_regular.ttf)
Read the official guide to find out more https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/look-and-feel/fonts-in-xml.html

Solution that I used for this problem:
public static void applyFontForToolbarTitle(Activity a){
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) a.findViewById(R.id.app_bar);
for(int i = 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++){
View view = toolbar.getChildAt(i);
if(view instanceof TextView){
TextView tv = (TextView) view;
if(tv.getText().equals(a.getTitle())){
tv.setTypeface(getRuneTypefaceBold(a));
break;
}
}
}
}
For center gravity I think it would be necessary to change layout params to match_parent horizontally and then:
tv.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);

I don't know if anything changed in the appcompat library but it's fairly trivial, no need for reflection.
Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
// loop through all toolbar children right after setting support
// action bar because the text view has no id assigned
// also make sure that the activity has some title here
// because calling setText() with an empty string actually
// removes the text view from the toolbar
TextView toolbarTitle = null;
for (int i = 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); ++i) {
View child = toolbar.getChildAt(i);
// assuming that the title is the first instance of TextView
// you can also check if the title string matches
if (child instanceof TextView) {
toolbarTitle = (TextView)child;
break;
}
}

I solved this solution , And this is a following codes:
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
app:popupTheme="#style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" >
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Order History"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:id="#+id/toolbar_title"
android:textSize="17sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:textColor="#color/colorWhite"
/>
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
And you can change title/label , in Activity, write a below codes:
Toolbar toolbarTop = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar_top);
TextView mTitle = (TextView) toolbarTop.findViewById(R.id.toolbar_title);
mTitle.setText("#string/....");

You can use like the following
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/top_actionbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:theme="#style/AppThemeToolbar">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/pageTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
/>
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

With the Material Components, starting from the version 1.4.x as described in the doc you can use the MaterialToolbar.
Just add the attribute app:titleCentered and/or app:subtitleCentered attributes to true on your MaterialToolbar.
Something like:
<com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar
android:id="#+id/topAppBar"
app:titleCentered="true"
... />
With Compose using the Material3 package you can simply use the CenterAlignedTopAppBar:
CenterAlignedTopAppBar(
title = { Text("Centered TopAppBar") },
navigationIcon = {
IconButton(onClick = { /* doSomething() */ }) {
Icon(
imageVector = Icons.Filled.Menu,
contentDescription = "Localized description"
)
}
}
)
If you are using Compose and the Material2 package, there isn't a builtin component but you can customize the layout of content inside the TopAppBar as described in this answer.

Update from #MrEngineer13's answer: to align title center in any cases, including Hamburger icon, option menus, you can add a FrameLayout in toolbar like this:
<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" >
<FrameLayout android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Toolbar Title"
android:layout_gravity="center"
style="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title"
android:id="#+id/toolbar_title" />
</FrameLayout>
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

Now using Material Design 3 we can align the title in the center without doing extra work or without adding a text view in the toolbar
Added below dependencies in build.gradle file
implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.6.1'
To align the title in the center We need to use the below properly
app:titleCentered="true"
To align subtitles in the center we need to use the below property
app:subtitleCentered="true"
Sample Code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar
android:id="#+id/topAppBar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
app:title="AskNilesh"
app:subtitle="Nilesh"
app:subtitleCentered="true"
app:menu="#menu/top_app_bar"
app:titleCentered="true"
app:navigationIcon="#drawable/ic_android_black_24dp" />
</com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout>
<androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
app:layout_behavior="#string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior">
</androidx.core.widget.NestedScrollView>
</androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout>
OUTPUT

Even though adding a text view to the toolbar can solve the problem of the restriction of title styling, there is an issue with it. Since we are not adding it to a layout, we do not have too much control over its width. We can either use wrap_content or match_parent.
Now consider a scenario where we have a searchView as a button on the right edge of the toolbar. If the title contents are more, it will go on top of the button obscuring it. There is no way of controlling this short of setting a width to the label and is something you don't want to do if you want to have a responsive design.
So, here is a solution that worked for me which is slightly different from adding a textview to the toolbar. Instead of that, add the toolbar and text view to a relative layout and ensure that the text view is on top of the toolbar. Then we can use appropriate margins and make sure the text view shows up where we want it to show up.
Make sure you set the toolbar to not show the title.
Here is the XML for this solution:
<RelativeLayout
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary">
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:theme="#style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark"
android:id="#+id/activity_toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
android:titleTextAppearance="#style/AppTheme.TitleTextView"
android:layout_marginRight="40dp"
android:layoutMode="clipBounds">
<android.support.v7.widget.SearchView
android:id="#+id/search_view"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="right"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:foregroundTint="#color/white" />
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/toolbar_title"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginRight="90dp"
android:text="#string/app_name"
android:textSize="#dimen/title_text_size"
android:textColor="#color/white"
android:lines="1"
android:layout_marginLeft="72dp"
android:layout_centerVertical="true" />
</RelativeLayout>
Solves the issue #ankur-chaudhary mentioned above.

Since android.support.v7.appcompat 24.2 Toolbar has method setTitleTextAppearance and you can set its font without external textview.
create new style in styles.xml
<style name="RobotoBoldTextAppearance">
<item name="android:fontFamily">#font/roboto_condensed_bold</item>
</style>
and use it
mToolbar.setTitleTextAppearance(this, R.style.RobotoBoldTextAppearance);

I spent several days searching for a universal solution. My toolbar working with android menu and nav icon.
At first, you need create custom toolbar class. This class must have calculate title centered positions (paddings):
class CenteredToolbar #JvmOverloads constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet? = null, defStyleAttr: Int = 0)
: Toolbar(context, attrs, defStyleAttr) {
init {
addOnLayoutChangeListener(object : View.OnLayoutChangeListener {
override fun onLayoutChange(v: View?, left: Int, top: Int, right: Int, bottom: Int, oldLeft: Int, oldTop: Int, oldRight: Int, oldBottom: Int) {
val titleTextView = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.centerTitle)
val x = titleTextView.x.toInt()
val x2 = x + titleTextView.width
val fullWidth = width
val fullCenter = fullWidth / 2
val offsetLeft = Math.abs(fullCenter - x)
val offsetRight = Math.abs(x2 - fullCenter)
val differOffset = Math.abs(offsetLeft - offsetRight)
if (offsetLeft > offsetRight) {
titleTextView.setPadding(differOffset, 0, 0, 0)
} else if (offsetRight > offsetLeft) {
titleTextView.setPadding(0, 0, differOffset, 0)
}
removeOnLayoutChangeListener(this)
}
})
}
override fun setTitle(resId: Int) = getTitleView().setText(resId)
override fun setTitle(title: CharSequence?) = getTitleView().setText(title)
fun getTitleView(): TextView = findViewById(R.id.centerTitle)
}
Secondly, you need create layout toolbar:
<CenteredToolbar xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/toolbar">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/centerTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</CenteredToolbar>
That's all

Try taking Toolbar and tittle in a separate view. Take a view on right end and given them weight equal to the toolbar weight. In this way your tittle will come in center.
<android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
android:id="#+id/app_bar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay"
android:background="#color/white_color">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/toolbar_layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#color/white_color">
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="#color/white_color"
app:popupTheme="#style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay"
app:contentInsetLeft="0dp"
app:contentInsetStart="0dp"
android:layout_weight="0.2"
app:contentInsetStartWithNavigation="0dp"
app:navigationIcon="#color/greyTextColor">
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
<com.an.customfontview.CustomTextView
android:id="#+id/headingText"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="0.6"
android:gravity="center"
android:text="Heading"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:textColor="#color/colorPrimary"
android:textSize="#dimen/keyboard_number"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
app:textFontPath="fonts/regular.ttf" />
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/search_icon"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:visibility="visible"
android:layout_weight="0.2"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical"
android:src="#drawable/portfolio_icon"/>
</LinearLayout>
</android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

You can insert this code in your xml file
<androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:background="#color/colorPrimaryDark"
android:elevation="4dp"
android:theme="#style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.ActionBar">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Toolbar Title"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="20dp"
android:id="#+id/toolbar_title" />
</androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar>

To use a custom title in your Toolbar you can add a custom title like :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
android:elevation="5dp"
app:contentInsetLeft="0dp"
app:contentInsetStart="0dp"
app:popupTheme="#style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"
app:theme="#style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark">
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/lnrTitle"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:orientation="vertical">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txvHeader"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center"
android:gravity="center"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1"
android:text="Header"
android:textColor="#color/white"
android:textSize="18sp" />
</LinearLayout>
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
Java Code:
Toolbar toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
if (getSupportActionBar() == null)
return;
getSupportActionBar().setTitle("Title");
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

Use com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar and app:titleCentered="true" tag
<com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
app:titleCentered="true" />

private void makeTitleCenter(String title, Toolbar toolbar) {
if (title != null && !TextUtils.isEmpty(title.trim())) {
final String tag = " ";
if (getSupportActionBar() != null) {
getSupportActionBar().setTitle(tag);
}
TextView titleTv = null;
View leftBtn = null;
for (int i = 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++) {
View view = toolbar.getChildAt(i);
CharSequence text = null;
if (view instanceof TextView && (text = ((TextView) view).getText()) != null && text.equals(tag)) {
titleTv = (TextView) view;
} else if (view instanceof ImageButton) {
leftBtn = view;
}
}
if (titleTv != null) {
final TextView fTitleTv = titleTv;
final View fLeftBtn = leftBtn;
fTitleTv.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
fTitleTv.getViewTreeObserver().removeOnGlobalLayoutListener(this);
int leftWidgetWidth = fLeftBtn != null ? fLeftBtn.getWidth() : 0;
fTitleTv.setPadding(DimenUtil.getResources().getDisplayMetrics().widthPixels / 2 - leftWidgetWidth - fTitleTv.getWidth() / 2, 0, 0, 0);
fTitleTv.requestLayout();
}
});
}
}
}

for custom font in toolbar you can override textView font in style and then every textView in your app also toolbar title font changed automatically
i tested it in android studio 3.1.3
in style do it:
<style name="defaultTextViewStyle" parent="android:Widget.TextView">
<item name="android:fontFamily">#font/your_custom_font</item>
</style>
and then in your theme use this:
<item name="android:textViewStyle">#style/defaultTextViewStyle</item>

I found another way to add custom toolbar without any adicional Java/Kotlin code.
First: create a XML with your custom toolbar layout with AppBarLayout as the parent:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
app:popupTheme="#style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="80dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="right"
android:layout_marginEnd="#dimen/magin_default"
android:src="#drawable/logo" />
</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>
Second: Include the toolbar in your layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#color/blue"
tools:context=".app.MainAcitivity"
tools:layout_editor_absoluteY="81dp">
<include
layout="#layout/toolbar_inicio"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
<!-- Put your layout here -->
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Add Item to Sherlock Action Bar

I want to cutomize sherlock action bar like below with one changes
when user click on icon1 it show a dropdownmenu like image2.
or how to add three imageview in action bar in image2 to the roght side of small dropdow icon.
I am following the shrelockaction bar sample code but not able to find it how to do that?

Try following,
public class MainActivity extends SherlockFragmentActivity
{
setupBackActionBar();
}
protected void setupBackActionBar()
{
final ActionBar.LayoutParams layoutParams = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(
ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, Gravity.LEFT );
titleBarView = getLayoutInflater().inflate( R.layout.actionbar, null );
titleActionbar = ( TextView ) titleBarView.findViewById( R.id.acb_title_text );
titleActionbar.setText( "Your title" );
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled( false );
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled( false );
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled( false );
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowCustomEnabled( true );
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView( titleBarView, layoutParams );
}
And create your own view for actionbar like below
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/acb_title_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:text="Title"
android:textColor="#fff"
android:textSize="18sp" />
</RelativeLayout>

remove padding around action bar left icon on Android 4.0+

I want to remove the padding around the icon on the left in the standard android 4.0+ action bar. I'm setting the icon with:
getActionBar().setIcon(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.ic_action_myapp));
And I would like the icon to fill vertically the space, touching both top and bottom, similar to what soundcloud app does:

Digging into AOSP sources, it seems the code involved is in com.android.internal.widget.ActionBarView.java. In particular the relevant part is the onLayout() method of the inner class ActionBarView$HomeView, partially reported below (lines 1433-1478):
#Override
protected void onLayout(boolean changed, int l, int t, int r, int b) {
...
final LayoutParams iconLp = (LayoutParams) mIconView.getLayoutParams();
final int iconHeight = mIconView.getMeasuredHeight();
final int iconWidth = mIconView.getMeasuredWidth();
final int hCenter = (r - l) / 2;
final int iconTop = Math.max(iconLp.topMargin, vCenter - iconHeight / 2);
final int iconBottom = iconTop + iconHeight;
final int iconLeft;
final int iconRight;
int marginStart = iconLp.getMarginStart();
final int delta = Math.max(marginStart, hCenter - iconWidth / 2);
if (isLayoutRtl) {
iconRight = width - upOffset - delta;
iconLeft = iconRight - iconWidth;
} else {
iconLeft = upOffset + delta;
iconRight = iconLeft + iconWidth;
}
mIconView.layout(iconLeft, iconTop, iconRight, iconBottom);
}
the same widget use this layout, defined in res/layout/action_bar_home.xml:
<view xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
class="com.android.internal.widget.ActionBarView$HomeView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ImageView android:id="#android:id/up"
android:src="?android:attr/homeAsUpIndicator"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:visibility="gone"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="-8dip" />
<ImageView android:id="#android:id/home"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="8dip"
android:layout_marginTop="#android:dimen/action_bar_icon_vertical_padding"
android:layout_marginBottom="#android:dimen/action_bar_icon_vertical_padding"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:scaleType="fitCenter" />
</view>
According to sources the icon is shown in the Imageview with id=android.R.id.home. The onLayout() method reported above takes account of the ImageView margins defined in the layout, which can't be set via theme/style override because they use the value #android:dimen/action_bar_icon_vertical_padding.
All you can do is to get rid of those values at runtime, and set them according your needs:
simply retrieve the ImageView and set its top and bottom margins to 0. Something like this:
ImageView icon = (ImageView) findViewById(android.R.id.home);
FrameLayout.LayoutParams iconLp = (FrameLayout.LayoutParams) icon.getLayoutParams();
iconLp.topMargin = iconLp.bottomMargin = 0;
icon.setLayoutParams( iconLp );
EDIT: I've just realized I didn't cover how to get rid of left padding. Solution below.
Left padding on actionbar is affected by the Navigating Up behavior of actionbar icon. When that is disabled (via ActionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false)) the left/up indicator is gone, but a left padding is used as well. A simple solution:
enable the actionbar up navigation using ActionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true) in order to consider the indicator view in the layout process
force the drawable used as up indicator in your res/values-v14/styles.xml to null
eg:
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- API 14 theme customizations can go here. -->
<item name="android:homeAsUpIndicator">#null</item>
</style>

I found an other resolution (reference appcompat-v7 ) that change the toolbarStyle ,following code:
<item name="toolbarStyle">#style/Widget.Toolbar</item>
<style name="Widget.Toolbar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Toolbar">
<item name="contentInsetStart">0dp</item>
</style>

use custom layout for ActionBar
public class TestActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.actionbar_custom_view_home);
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
actionBar.setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
}
public void Click(View v) {
if (v.getId() == R.id.imageIcon) {
Log.e("click on--> ", "Action icon");
}
}
}
actionbar_custom_view_home.xml
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/linearLayout1"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:gravity="center" >
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageIcon"
android:onClick="Click"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:src="#drawable/ic_launcher" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Large Icon With Title"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
</LinearLayout>

Enhanced parrzhang reply in remove padding around action bar left icon on Android 4.0+
private void adjustHomeButtonLayout(){
ImageView view = (ImageView)findViewById(android.R.id.home);
if(view.getParent() instanceof ViewGroup){
ViewGroup viewGroup = (ViewGroup)view.getParent();
View upView = viewGroup.getChildAt(0);
if(upView != null && upView.getLayoutParams() instanceof FrameLayout.LayoutParams){
FrameLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = (FrameLayout.LayoutParams) upView.getLayoutParams();
layoutParams.width = 20;// **can give your own width**
upView.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);
}
}
}

To set the height of ActionBar you can create new Theme like this one:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="Theme.BarSize" parent="Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="actionBarSize">48dip</item>
<item name="android:actionBarSize">48dip</item>
</style>
</resources>
and set this Theme to your Activity:
android:theme="#style/Theme.BarSize"
Now, set the height of the icons to "match_parent".
That would remove the top and bottom padding.
Now, the arrow at the left is inbuilt into the framework, so you have two options for a workaround:
Use ActionBarSherlock. It uses it's own drwables and resources, so you can modify the arrow icon to an emty png, so that your up icon would move to extreme left.
The up/back icon arises from:
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
{
switch (item.getItemId())
{
case android.R.id.home:
NavUtils.navigateUpFromSameTask(this);
return true;
}
}
So, instead of using this option for up button, you can make another actionbar option, which has an intent for the previous activity, and then place that icon on your action bar.
It will be a bigger workaround though.
Hope that helps.. :)

you can find homeview in actionbarview define like this:
<view xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
class="com.android.internal.widget.ActionBarView$HomeView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<ImageView android:id="#android:id/up"
android:src="?android:attr/homeAsUpIndicator"
android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:visibility="gone"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="-8dip" />
<ImageView android:id="#android:id/home"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginEnd="8dip"
android:layout_marginTop="#android:dimen/action_bar_icon_vertical_padding"
android:layout_marginBottom="#android:dimen/action_bar_icon_vertical_padding"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:adjustViewBounds="true"
android:scaleType="fitCenter" />
but you cannot get upView by findViewById(android.R.id.up).
so you can get homeView and get its parent view ,set upview width 0
ImageView view = (ImageView)findViewById(android.R.id.home);
if(view.getParent() instanceof ViewGroup){
ViewGroup viewGroup = (ViewGroup)view.getParent();
View upView = viewGroup.getChildAt(0);
FrameLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = (FrameLayout.LayoutParams) upView.getLayoutParams();
layoutParams.width = 0;
upView.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);
}

How to center align the ActionBar title in Android?

I am trying to use the following code to center the text in the ActionBar, but it aligns itself to the left.
How do you make it appear in the center?
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(true);
actionBar.setTitle("Canteen Home");
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
actionBar.setIcon(R.drawable.back);

To have a centered title in ABS (if you want to have this in the default ActionBar, just remove the "support" in the method names), you could just do this:
In your Activity, in your onCreate() method:
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.abs_layout);
abs_layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:orientation="vertical">
<androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView
android:id="#+id/tvTitle"
style="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF" />
</LinearLayout>
Now you should have an Actionbar with just a title. If you want to set a custom background, set it in the Layout above (but then don't forget to set android:layout_height="match_parent").
or with:
getSupportActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.yourimage));

I haven't had much success with the other answers... below is exactly what worked for me on Android 4.4.3 using the ActionBar in the support library v7. I have it set up to show the navigation drawer icon ("burger menu button")
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:orientation="horizontal" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/actionbar_textview"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:maxLines="1"
android:clickable="false"
android:focusable="false"
android:longClickable="false"
android:textStyle="bold"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:textColor="#FFFFFF" />
</LinearLayout>
Java
//Customize the ActionBar
final ActionBar abar = getSupportActionBar();
abar.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.actionbar_background));//line under the action bar
View viewActionBar = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.actionbar_titletext_layout, null);
ActionBar.LayoutParams params = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(//Center the textview in the ActionBar !
ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
Gravity.CENTER);
TextView textviewTitle = (TextView) viewActionBar.findViewById(R.id.actionbar_textview);
textviewTitle.setText("Test");
abar.setCustomView(viewActionBar, params);
abar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
abar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
abar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
abar.setIcon(R.color.transparent);
abar.setHomeButtonEnabled(true);

Define your own custom view with title text, then pass LayoutParams to setCustomView(), as Sergii says.
ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar()
actionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
actionBar.setCustomView(getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.action_bar_home, null),
new ActionBar.LayoutParams(
ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
Gravity.CENTER
)
);
EDITED: At least for width, you should use WRAP_CONTENT or your navigation drawer, app icon, etc. WON'T BE SHOWN (custom view shown on top of other views on action bar). This will occur especially when no action button is shown.
EDITED: Equivalent in xml layout:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
android:orientation="vertical">
This doesn't require LayoutParams to be specified.
actionBar.setCustomView(getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.action_bar_home, null);

Just a quick addition to Ahmad's answer. You can't use getSupportActionBar().setTitle anymore when using a custom view with a TextView. So to set the title when you have multiple Activities with this custom ActionBar (using this one xml), in your onCreate() method after you assign a custom view:
TextView textViewTitle = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.mytext);
textViewTitle.setText(R.string.title_for_this_activity);

Code here working for me.
// Activity
public void setTitle(String title){
getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
TextView textView = new TextView(this);
textView.setText(title);
textView.setTextSize(20);
textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
textView.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(textView);
}
// Fragment
public void setTitle(String title){
((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
TextView textView = new TextView(getActivity());
textView.setText(title);
textView.setTextSize(20);
textView.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD);
textView.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
textView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));
((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
((AppCompatActivity)getActivity()).getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(textView);
}

Without customview its able to center actionbar title.
It's perfectly working for navigation drawer as well
int titleId = getResources().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", "android");
TextView abTitle = (TextView) findViewById(titleId);
abTitle.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));
DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics);
abTitle.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
abTitle.setWidth(metrics.widthPixels);
getActionBar().setTitle("I am center now");

OK. After a lot of research, combined with the accepted answer above, I have come up with a solution that also works if you have other stuff in your action bar (back/home button, menu button). So basically I have put the override methods in a basic activity (which all other activities extend), and placed the code there. This code sets the title of each activity as it is provided in AndroidManifest.xml, and also does som other custom stuff (like setting a custom tint on action bar buttons, and custom font on the title). You only need to leave out the gravity in action_bar.xml, and use padding instead. actionBar != null check is used, since not all my activities have one.
Tested on 4.4.2 and 5.0.1
public class BaseActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private ActionBar actionBar;
private TextView actionBarTitle;
private Toolbar toolbar;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_CONTENT_TRANSITIONS);
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
...
getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_HIDDEN);
actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
if (actionBar != null) {
actionBar.setElevation(0);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.action_bar);
LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) actionBar.getCustomView();
actionBarTitle = (TextView) layout.getChildAt(0);
actionBarTitle.setText(this.getTitle());
actionBarTitle.setTypeface(Utility.getSecondaryFont(this));
toolbar = (Toolbar) layout.getParent();
toolbar.setContentInsetsAbsolute(0, 0);
if (this.getClass() == BackButtonActivity.class || this.getClass() == AnotherBackButtonActivity.class) {
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);
Drawable wrapDrawable = DrawableCompat.wrap(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.ic_back));
DrawableCompat.setTint(wrapDrawable, getResources().getColor(android.R.color.white));
actionBar.setHomeAsUpIndicator(wrapDrawable);
actionBar.setIcon(null);
}
else {
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
actionBar.setHomeAsUpIndicator(null);
actionBar.setIcon(null);
}
}
try {
ViewConfiguration config = ViewConfiguration.get(this);
Field menuKeyField = ViewConfiguration.class.getDeclaredField("sHasPermanentMenuKey");
if(menuKeyField != null) {
menuKeyField.setAccessible(true);
menuKeyField.setBoolean(config, false);
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
// Ignore
}
}
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
if (actionBar != null) {
int padding = (getDisplayWidth() - actionBarTitle.getWidth())/2;
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
if (this.getClass() == MenuActivity.class) {
inflater.inflate(R.menu.activity_close_menu, menu);
}
else {
inflater.inflate(R.menu.activity_open_menu, menu);
}
MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.main_menu);
Drawable icon = item.getIcon();
icon.mutate().mutate().setColorFilter(getResources().getColor(R.color.white), PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_IN);
item.setIcon(icon);
ImageButton imageButton;
for (int i =0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++) {
if (toolbar.getChildAt(i).getClass() == ImageButton.class) {
imageButton = (ImageButton) toolbar.getChildAt(i);
padding -= imageButton.getWidth();
break;
}
}
actionBarTitle.setPadding(padding, 0, 0, 0);
}
return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
} ...
And my action_bar.xml is like this (if anyone is interested):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_gravity="center"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#color/actionbar_text_color"
android:textAllCaps="true"
android:textSize="9pt"
/>
</LinearLayout>
EDIT: If you need to change the title to something else AFTER the activity is loaded (onCreateOptionsMenu has already been called), put another TextView in your action_bar.xml and use the following code to "pad" this new TextView, set text and show it:
protected void setSubTitle(CharSequence title) {
if (!initActionBarTitle()) return;
if (actionBarSubTitle != null) {
if (title != null || title.length() > 0) {
actionBarSubTitle.setText(title);
setActionBarSubTitlePadding();
}
}
}
private void setActionBarSubTitlePadding() {
if (actionBarSubTitlePaddingSet) return;
ViewTreeObserver vto = layout.getViewTreeObserver();
if(vto.isAlive()){
vto.addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
int padding = (getDisplayWidth() - actionBarSubTitle.getWidth())/2;
ImageButton imageButton;
for (int i = 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++) {
if (toolbar.getChildAt(i).getClass() == ImageButton.class) {
imageButton = (ImageButton) toolbar.getChildAt(i);
padding -= imageButton.getWidth();
break;
}
}
actionBarSubTitle.setPadding(padding, 0, 0, 0);
actionBarSubTitlePaddingSet = true;
ViewTreeObserver obs = layout.getViewTreeObserver();
obs.removeOnGlobalLayoutListener(this);
}
});
}
}
protected void hideActionBarTitle() {
if (!initActionBarTitle()) return;
actionBarTitle.setVisibility(View.GONE);
if (actionBarSubTitle != null) {
actionBarSubTitle.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}
}
protected void showActionBarTitle() {
if (!initActionBarTitle()) return;
actionBarTitle.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
if (actionBarSubTitle != null) {
actionBarSubTitle.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
}
EDIT (25.08.2016): This does not work with appcompat 24.2.0 revision (August 2016), if your activity has a "back button". I filed a bug report (Issue 220899), but I do not know if it is of any use (doubt it will be fixed any time soon). Meanwhile the solution is to check if the child's class is equal to AppCompatImageButton.class and do the same, only increase the width by 30% (e.g. appCompatImageButton.getWidth()*1.3 before subtracting this value from the original padding):
padding -= appCompatImageButton.getWidth()*1.3;
In the mean time I threw in some padding/margin checks in there:
Class<?> c;
ImageButton imageButton;
AppCompatImageButton appCompatImageButton;
for (int i = 0; i < toolbar.getChildCount(); i++) {
c = toolbar.getChildAt(i).getClass();
if (c == AppCompatImageButton.class) {
appCompatImageButton = (AppCompatImageButton) toolbar.getChildAt(i);
padding -= appCompatImageButton.getWidth()*1.3;
padding -= appCompatImageButton.getPaddingLeft();
padding -= appCompatImageButton.getPaddingRight();
if (appCompatImageButton.getLayoutParams().getClass() == LinearLayout.LayoutParams.class) {
padding -= ((LinearLayout.LayoutParams) appCompatImageButton.getLayoutParams()).getMarginEnd();
padding -= ((LinearLayout.LayoutParams) appCompatImageButton.getLayoutParams()).getMarginStart();
}
break;
}
else if (c == ImageButton.class) {
imageButton = (ImageButton) toolbar.getChildAt(i);
padding -= imageButton.getWidth();
padding -= imageButton.getPaddingLeft();
padding -= imageButton.getPaddingRight();
if (imageButton.getLayoutParams().getClass() == LinearLayout.LayoutParams.class) {
padding -= ((LinearLayout.LayoutParams) imageButton.getLayoutParams()).getMarginEnd();
padding -= ((LinearLayout.LayoutParams) imageButton.getLayoutParams()).getMarginStart();
}
break;
}
}

It works nicely.
activity = (AppCompatActivity) getActivity();
activity.getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) activity.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_actionbar, null);
ActionBar.LayoutParams p = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(
ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
Gravity.CENTER);
((TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.title)).setText(FRAGMENT_TITLE);
activity.getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(v, p);
activity.getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(true);
activity.getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
Below layout of custom_actionbar:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:text="Example"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:textColor="#color/colorBlack" />
</RelativeLayout>

Best and easiest way, specifically for those who just want text view with gravity center without any xml layout.
AppCompatTextView mTitleTextView = new AppCompatTextView(getApplicationContext());
mTitleTextView.setSingleLine();
ActionBar.LayoutParams layoutParams = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
layoutParams.gravity = Gravity.CENTER;
actionBar.setCustomView(mTitleTextView, layoutParams);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM | ActionBar.DISPLAY_HOME_AS_UP);
mTitleTextView.setText(text);
mTitleTextView.setTextAppearance(getApplicationContext(), android.R.style.TextAppearance_Medium);

A Kotlin-only solution that does not require to have changes in the XML Layouts:
//Function to call in onResume() of your activity
private fun centerToolbarText() {
val mTitleTextView = AppCompatTextView(this)
mTitleTextView.text = title
mTitleTextView.setSingleLine()//Remove it if you want to allow multiple lines in the toolbar
mTitleTextView.textSize = 25f
val layoutParams = android.support.v7.app.ActionBar.LayoutParams(
ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT
)
layoutParams.gravity = Gravity.CENTER
supportActionBar?.setCustomView(mTitleTextView,layoutParams)
supportActionBar?.displayOptions = ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM
}

After a lot of research:
This actually works:
getActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
getActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.custom_actionbar);
ActionBar.LayoutParams p = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
p.gravity = Gravity.CENTER;
You have to define custom_actionbar.xml layout which is as per your requirement e.g. :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:background="#2e2e2e"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_gravity="center">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/imageView1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="#drawable/top_banner"
android:layout_gravity="center"
/>
</LinearLayout>

You need to set ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT and ActionBar.DISPLAY_HOME_AS_UP
View customView = LayoutInflater.from(this).inflate(R.layout.actionbar_title, null);
ActionBar.LayoutParams params = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, Gravity.CENTER);
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME | ActionBar.DISPLAY_HOME_AS_UP );

Here is a complete Kotlin + androidx solution, building upon the answer from #Stanislas Heili. I hope it may be useful to others. It's for the case when you have an activity that hosts multiple fragments, with only one fragment active at the same time.
In your activity:
private lateinit var customTitle: AppCompatTextView
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
// stuff here
customTitle = createCustomTitleTextView()
// other stuff here
}
private fun createCustomTitleTextView(): AppCompatTextView {
val mTitleTextView = AppCompatTextView(this)
TextViewCompat.setTextAppearance(mTitleTextView, R.style.your_style_or_null);
val layoutParams = ActionBar.LayoutParams(
ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT
)
layoutParams.gravity = Gravity.CENTER
supportActionBar?.setCustomView(mTitleTextView, layoutParams)
supportActionBar?.displayOptions = ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM
return mTitleTextView
}
override fun setTitle(title: CharSequence?) {
customTitle.text = title
}
override fun setTitle(titleId: Int) {
customTitle.text = getString(titleId)
}
In your fragments:
override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)
activity?.title = "some title for fragment"
}

The other tutorials I've seen override the whole action bar layout hiding the MenuItems. I've got it worked just doing the following steps:
Create a xml file as following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1"
android:text="#string/app_name"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
android:textColor="#android:color/white" />
</RelativeLayout>
And in the classe do it:
LayoutInflater inflator = (LayoutInflater) this.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
View v = inflator.inflate(R.layout.action_bar_title, null);
ActionBar.LayoutParams params = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, ActionBar.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, Gravity.CENTER);
TextView titleTV = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.title);
titleTV.setText("Test");

For Kotlin users:
Use the following code in your activity:
// Set custom action bar
supportActionBar?.displayOptions = ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM
supportActionBar?.setCustomView(R.layout.action_bar)
// Set title for action bar
val title = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.titleTextView)
title.setText(resources.getText(R.string.app_name))
And the XML/ resource layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/titleTextView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Title"
android:textColor="#color/black"
android:textSize="18sp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

My solution will be to keep text part of tool bar separate, to define style and say, center or whichever alignment. It can be done in XML itself. Some paddings can be specified after doing calculations when you have actions that are visible always. I have moved two attributes from toolbar to its child TextView. This textView can be provided id to be accessed from fragments.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:fitsSystemWindows="true">
<com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">
<androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/toolbar"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
app:popupTheme="#style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" >
<!--android:theme="#style/defaultTitleTheme"
app:titleTextColor="#color/white"-->
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:gravity="center"
android:paddingStart="#dimen/icon_size"
android:text="#string/title_home"
style="#style/defaultTitleTheme"
tools:ignore="RtlSymmetry" />
</androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar>
</com.google.android.material.appbar.AppBarLayout>
<FrameLayout
android:id="#+id/container"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

Here's a quick tip to center align the action:
android:label=" YourTitle"
Assuming that you have Actionbar Enable, You can add this in your activity with some space (Can be adjusted) to place the title at the center.
However, This is just diddly and unreliable method. You probably shouldn't do that. So, The best thing to do is to create a custom ActionBar. So, What you wanna do is remove the default Actionbar and use this to replace it as an ActionBar.
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
android:elevation="30dp"
android:id="#+id/customAction"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="56dp"
android:background="#color/colorOnMain"
android:orientation="horizontal">
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/app_name"
android:textAllCaps="true"
android:textColor="#FFF"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:textStyle="bold"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
I have used Constraint Layout to center the textView and used 10dp elevation with 56dp height so that it looks as same as the default ActionBar.

This code will not hide back button, Same time will align the title in centre.
call this method in oncreate
centerActionBarTitle();
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
myActionBar.setIcon(new ColorDrawable(Color.TRANSPARENT));
private void centerActionBarTitle() {
int titleId = 0;
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
titleId = getResources().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", "android");
} else {
// This is the id is from your app's generated R class when
// ActionBarActivity is used for SupportActionBar
titleId = R.id.action_bar_title;
}
// Final check for non-zero invalid id
if (titleId > 0) {
TextView titleTextView = (TextView) findViewById(titleId);
DisplayMetrics metrics = getResources().getDisplayMetrics();
// Fetch layout parameters of titleTextView
// (LinearLayout.LayoutParams : Info from HierarchyViewer)
LinearLayout.LayoutParams txvPars = (LayoutParams) titleTextView.getLayoutParams();
txvPars.gravity = Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL;
txvPars.width = metrics.widthPixels;
titleTextView.setLayoutParams(txvPars);
titleTextView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
}
}