Styling a SearchView in Android Action Bar

You can change the style of the searchview. Here is some code I used to tweak the edittext, the voice icon...

SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);

        SearchView searchView = (SearchView) menu.findItem(R.id.menu_search).getActionView();
        searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));

        int searchPlateId = searchView.getContext().getResources().getIdentifier("android:id/search_plate", null, null);
        searchView.findViewById(searchPlateId).setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.textfield_search_selected);

        int voiceSearchPlateId = searchView.getContext().getResources().getIdentifier("android:id/submit_area", null, null);
        searchView.findViewById(voiceSearchPlateId).setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.textfield_search_right_selected);

        // change hint color
        int searchTextViewId = searchView.getContext().getResources().getIdentifier("android:id/search_src_text", null, null);
        TextView searchTextView = (TextView) searchView.findViewById(searchTextViewId);
        searchTextView.setHintTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.light_grey));

[edit] A more complete answer is available here : Changing the background drawable of the searchview widget

I have been spending many time for this but finally: :-)

1. To change the text color :

((EditText)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text)).setTextColor(Color.WHITE);

or this one for AndroidX:

((EditText)searchView.findViewById(androidx.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text)).setTextColor(Color.WHITE);

2. To change the text hint:

((EditText)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text)).setHintTextColor(Color.WHITE);

or this one for AndroidX:

((EditText)searchView.findViewById(androidx.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text)).setHintTextColor(Color.WHITE);

You would have to set

searchView.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE);

SearchViews are not so customizable.

If you're using appcompat library, then the solution is a bit different from Jerome's answer. Here's my solution

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
{
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main_menu, menu);
    restoreActionBar();

    SearchManager searchManager = (SearchManager) getSystemService(Context.SEARCH_SERVICE);
    MenuItem searchMenuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    SearchView searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(searchMenuItem);
    searchView.setSearchableInfo(searchManager.getSearchableInfo(getComponentName()));

    SearchView.SearchAutoComplete searchAutoComplete = (SearchView.SearchAutoComplete)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_src_text);
    searchAutoComplete.setHintTextColor(Color.WHITE);
    searchAutoComplete.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);

    View searchplate = (View)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_plate);
    searchplate.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.texfield_searchview_holo_light);

    ImageView searchCloseIcon = (ImageView)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_close_btn);
    searchCloseIcon.setImageResource(R.drawable.clear_search);

    ImageView voiceIcon = (ImageView)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_voice_btn);
    voiceIcon.setImageResource(R.drawable.abc_ic_voice_search);

    ImageView searchIcon = (ImageView)searchView.findViewById(android.support.v7.appcompat.R.id.search_mag_icon);
    searchIcon.setImageResource(R.drawable.abc_ic_search);


    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}