Google’s Material Design guidelines have helped give Android a unified look and feel. Sadly, manufacturer skins tend to adopt the new guidelines very slow.
For example, the status bar icons have outdated (and often childish designs) on manufacturer skins even on new handsets. If you’d like to get a Material Design status bar on Android, you don’t need to be using the stock version.
How to get a Material Design status bar on Android
A clever free app called Status makes it possible to switch to a Material Design status bar including the theming and icons, even if you are actually using Samsung’s TouchWiz, or HTC’s Sense skins.
The best part is, your device doesn’t need to be rooted and it can run any Android version starting with 4.1.
The first thing you need to do is install the app, which you can do by visiting the link below on your Android device:
Download Status for free (Google Play Store)
The app simply places an overlay on top of the system status bar. To do this, it requires several permissions which you will need to grant when it finishes installing.
Luckily, this process is easy as you will be guided through it by the app. You simply need to tap on “Grant Access”, enable the permission on the next screen and confirm your choice. Once you do this for all required permissions you can finally start using Status.
In the app’s main menu, the first thing you need to do is enable the “Status Bar Service”.
The “Status Bar Coloring” option will match the color of your status bar to the app that is currently in use. If you like this feature simply toggle the switch next to the option.
Nevertheless, some apps have no color, and it is possible that the automated color-matching function doesn’t work properly. For this purpose, you can tap on the “Status Bar Color” option to set a default color.
While status usually manages to match the color for most apps, if you see it’s not working for a specific app you can come back to the main menu of Status and tap on “Add Apps”.
All you need to do  is toggle the switch next to the app you’re having trouble with and adjust its status bar coloring yourself.
Once you finish customizing Status you can enjoy your new Material Design status bar that automatically matches its color to the currently used app. Of course, whenever you expand the notification tray you will still be seeing the stock interface but at the very least Status will make your Android UI seem more put together.
Share this post if you liked it and follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Google+ to stay up to date with the latest apps, games, guides and everything Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
