android 4.0, text on the action bar NEVER shows

I suspect that it was a conscious decision by the Android developers to never display a single menu item’s text and icon on a narrow action bar. But if you really want to do so, you can use android:actionLayout in your menu.xml file. The Android ActionBar documentation has a slightly better explanation.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+id/menu_foo"
          android:title="@string/menu_foo"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_foo"
          android:showAsAction="always"
          android:actionLayout="@layout/action_button_foo" />
</menu>

Then create your action_button_foo.xml layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:paddingTop="14dp"
    android:paddingBottom="14dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@string/menu_foo"
    android:drawableLeft="@drawable/ic_menu_foo"
    android:background="@drawable/bg_btn_action_bar"
    android:clickable="true" />

and use a selector for its background bg_btn_action_bar.xml, so it changes color when you tap it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:state_pressed="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/bg_action_bar_pressed" />
    <item
        android:drawable="@color/transparent" />
</selector>

Now you’ll need to make your custom view handle click events. In your Activity, I like to do this, so that I can handle the click in onOptionsItemSelected along with all my other, non-custom items.

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

    final MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_foo);
    item.getActionView().setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
    });

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}