MenuItem tinting on AppCompat Toolbar

Question

When I use drawables from the AppCompat library for my Toolbar menu items the tinting works as expected. Like this:

Answer 1

Because if you take a look at the source code of the TintManager in AppCompat, you will see:

/**
 * Drawables which should be tinted with the value of {@code R.attr.colorControlNormal},
 * using the default mode.
 */
private static final int[] TINT_COLOR_CONTROL_NORMAL = {
        R.drawable.abc_ic_ab_back_mtrl_am_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_go_search_api_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_search_api_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_commit_search_api_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_clear_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_menu_share_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_menu_copy_mtrl_am_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_menu_cut_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_menu_selectall_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_menu_paste_mtrl_am_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_menu_moreoverflow_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_ic_voice_search_api_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_textfield_search_default_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_textfield_default_mtrl_alpha
};

/**
 * Drawables which should be tinted with the value of {@code R.attr.colorControlActivated},
 * using the default mode.
 */
private static final int[] TINT_COLOR_CONTROL_ACTIVATED = {
        R.drawable.abc_textfield_activated_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_textfield_search_activated_mtrl_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_cab_background_top_mtrl_alpha
};

/**
 * Drawables which should be tinted with the value of {@code android.R.attr.colorBackground},
 * using the {@link android.graphics.PorterDuff.Mode#MULTIPLY} mode.
 */
private static final int[] TINT_COLOR_BACKGROUND_MULTIPLY = {
        R.drawable.abc_popup_background_mtrl_mult,
        R.drawable.abc_cab_background_internal_bg,
        R.drawable.abc_menu_hardkey_panel_mtrl_mult
};

/**
 * Drawables which should be tinted using a state list containing values of
 * {@code R.attr.colorControlNormal} and {@code R.attr.colorControlActivated}
 */
private static final int[] TINT_COLOR_CONTROL_STATE_LIST = {
        R.drawable.abc_edit_text_material,
        R.drawable.abc_tab_indicator_material,
        R.drawable.abc_textfield_search_material,
        R.drawable.abc_spinner_mtrl_am_alpha,
        R.drawable.abc_btn_check_material,
        R.drawable.abc_btn_radio_material
};

/**
 * Drawables which contain other drawables which should be tinted. The child drawable IDs
 * should be defined in one of the arrays above.
 */
private static final int[] CONTAINERS_WITH_TINT_CHILDREN = {
        R.drawable.abc_cab_background_top_material
};

Which pretty much means they have particular resourceIds whitelisted to be tinted.

But I guess you can always see how they're tinting those images and do the same. It's as easy as set the ColorFilter on a drawable.