Changing Android's EditText cursor pointer color programmatically

Question

So, i've searched a lot but i couldn't find anything, if this ends up being a duplicate i'm sorry, but i want to cange the color of the EditText's cursor pointer that is used to move the cursor

I already managed to change the cursor's color itself but it doesn't affect the pointer which seems to only respond to accentColor.

I'm pretty sure it's possible because i recall seeing an app that did it, it had the pointer and all the elements in a dialog change color based on a color that you choose without changing the accent color of the view below the dialog.

Please help :)

As you said, I think you can change this color by changing accentColor — Chol, Feb 23 '16 at 16:48
Yes but changing accent color would change also the color of the underlying elements that are hardwired to accent color — alessandro gaboardi, Feb 23 '16 at 16:52
Maybe you can create a custom theme for this edit text and set the accentColor as desired — Chol, Feb 23 '16 at 16:53
i didn't think about that, i'll try in a moment and let you know, do you know of a way to change a theme's accent color programmatically? — alessandro gaboardi, Feb 23 '16 at 16:56
Can check this : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25354558/how-to-change-programmatically-the-primary-color-in-android-l but doesn't seems as easy as only add few lines in the styles.xml :) — Chol, Feb 23 '16 at 16:58
i finally tried to do it and the theme works but it's too complicated to change programmatically so it's not worth it — alessandro gaboardi, Feb 28 '16 at 18:40

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:00

You can create your own style/theme for only this EditText and change the ColorAccent :

<style name="EditTextColorCustom" parent="@style/AppBaseTheme">
        <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
        <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    </style>

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:01

4

You can do this by creating new style in style.xml like this

<style name="CustomEditTextTheme" parent="TextAppearance.AppCompat">
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/primary_dark_material_dark</item>       
</style>

Then in EditText tag use this

style="@style/CustomEditTextTheme"

answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:01

MUHAMMAD SOBAN

403
8
20

3

Instead of style=... I wrote `android:theme="@style/CustomEditTextTheme"`. – CoolMind Aug 30 '16 at 21:43
`@color/primary_dark_material_dark ` use this instead if `colorAccent` is not working – daisura99 Jun 19 '19 at 08:01

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 06:05

2

you can use textSelectHandle to replace it by your drawable like this:

android:textSelectHandle="@drawable/your_drawble"

answered Aug 08 '17 at 06:05

hadi

367
5
18

none of suggested variants worked for my TextInputEditText or AppCompatAutoCompleteTextView, and only this one. I used "invert_colors" vector from Android Studio icons – djdance Apr 26 '21 at 15:33

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 29 '18 at 12:20

You can use reflection to set selectHandle.

EditText has Editor class that has the mSelectHandleCenter field (if you need selection use mSelectHandleLeft and mSelectHandleRight)

private fun setCursorPointerColor(view: EditText, @ColorInt color: Int) {
    try {
        //get the pointer resource id
        var field = TextView::class.java.getDeclaredField("mTextSelectHandleRes")
        field.isAccessible = true
        val drawableResId = field.getInt(view)

        //get the editor
        field = TextView::class.java.getDeclaredField("mEditor")
        field.isAccessible = true
        val editor = field.get(view)

        //tint drawable
        val drawable = ContextCompat.getDrawable(view.context, drawableResId)!!
        drawable.setColorFilter(color, PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_IN)

        //set the drawable
        field = editor.javaClass.getDeclaredField("mSelectHandleCenter")
        field.isAccessible = true
        field.set(editor, drawable)

    } catch (ex: Exception) {
    }
}

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 07 '19 at 13:30

2

You can add colorControlActivated to your AppTheme in style :

<item name="colorControlActivated">"Your_color"</item>

answered Mar 07 '19 at 13:30

Mohamed Matar

21
1

well this actually works.. but i think it will override color accent setting – daisura99 Jun 19 '19 at 07:36

Changing Android's EditText cursor pointer color programmatically

5 Answers5