AppCompatDelegate.setDefaultNightMode not triggering activity animation/transition in SDK 24 (Nougat)

Question

Having this setup

<style name="Theme.App" parent="Theme.Material3.DayNight">

   <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/WindowAnimationTransition</item>

</style>

<style name="WindowAnimationTransition" parent="@android:style/Animation.Activity">
    <item name="android:windowEnterAnimation">@android:anim/fade_in</item>
    <item name="android:windowExitAnimation">@android:anim/fade_out</item>
    <item name="android:activityOpenEnterAnimation">@android:anim/fade_in</item>
    <item name="android:activityOpenExitAnimation">@android:anim/fade_out</item>
    <item name="android:activityCloseEnterAnimation">@android:anim/fade_in</item>
    <item name="android:activityCloseExitAnimation">@android:anim/fade_out</item>
</style>

It works in Android 21 or 22 (Lollipop) and 23 (Marshmallow) when activity is recreated after calling AppCompatDelegate.setDefaultNightMode. However, it is not working with SDK 24 (Nougat) and above. I cannot find any documentation stating the reason why, my only guess is there is some optimization going on so the activity is not recreated and only does some partial re-rendering. Is this expected behavior or is there something I need to add more? Reading the documentation for setDefaultNightMode seems to support my idea of what is going on.

Answer 1

Ensure You Are Using AppCompat Theme:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Your theme attributes -->
</style>


AppCompatDelegate.setDefaultNightMode(AppCompatDelegate.MODE_NIGHT_YES);