In Android when you pop up a dialog the screen behind it dims. Is there any way to control what that looks like? For example making it dim more or less or using some kind
Yes, it is. You can control it.
After creating dialog:
WindowManager.LayoutParams lp = dialog.getWindow().getAttributes();
lp.dimAmount = 0.0f; // Dim level. 0.0 - no dim, 1.0 - completely opaque
dialog.getWindow().setAttributes(lp);
Upd: you can even add blur behind the dialog:
dialog.getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_BLUR_BEHIND);
Upd2: Blurring is deprecated since API14:
This constant was deprecated in API level 14.
Blurring is no longer supported.