Android Studio – In API 35 Layer Elements not move down below the status bar

Here are a few approaches to achieve what you want:

1. To disable edge-to-edge and revert to the old behavior in API 35:

    class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
        override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?){
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
   
            // Disable edge-to-edge
            WindowCompat.setDecorFitsSystemWindows(window, true)
   
            setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        }
    }
   

2.If you want to keep edge-to-edge but add padding/margin below the status bar, you can use WindowInsets:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        
        // Get the root view
        val rootView = findViewById<View>(android.R.id.content)
        
        // Apply window insets
        ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(rootView) { view, windowInsets ->
            val insets = windowInsets.getInsets(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.statusBars())
            view.setPadding(0, insets.top, 0, 0)
            windowInsets
        }
    }
}

3.If you want to add margin programmatically to specific views:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        
        val myButton = findViewById<Button>(R.id.mybutton)
        
        // Get status bar height from resources
        val resourceId = resources.getIdentifier("status_bar_height", "dimen", "android")
        val statusBarHeight = if (resourceId > 0) {
            resources.getDimensionPixelSize(resourceId)
        } else {
            (resources.displayMetrics.density * 24f).toInt()
        }
        
        // Apply margin to the button
        (myButton.layoutParams as ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams).apply {
            topMargin = statusBarHeight
            myButton.layoutParams = this
        }
    }
}

4. In XML layout, you can use a top-level container with padding:

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true">
    
    <!-- Your content here -->
    
</LinearLayout>

5. Or if you want to apply it to all direct children of your layout:

// In your Activity

private fun applyStatusBarMarginToChildren() {
    val rootView = findViewById<ViewGroup>(android.R.id.content)
    val statusBarHeight = resources.getIdentifier("status_bar_height", "dimen", "android")
        .let { if (it > 0) resources.getDimensionPixelSize(it) else 0 }
        
    for (i in 0 until rootView.childCount) {
        val child = rootView.getChildAt(i)
        (child.layoutParams as ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams).apply {
            topMargin = statusBarHeight
            child.layoutParams = this
        }
    }
}

The reason your original attempts weren’t working:

mybutton.top = 50 – This directly modifies the view’s position property, which doesn’t affect the layout parameters
@*android:dimen/status_bar_height – This is a system resource that’s not directly accessible in this way