I was trying to implement the new BottomAppBar that usually looks like this: material BottomAppBar as a BottomNavigationView like in the Google home app that looks like this
SOLVED
Basically, instead of trying to force the menu resources to the layout that i needed, i used this solution instead, i just put a LinearLayout inside the BottomAppBar using the "empty" element as @dglozano suggested.
Using ?attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless i'm also able to achieve an effect that is really similar to the BottomNavigationView.