Android TextView DrawableTint on pre v23 devices

AndroidX appcompat library supports tinting in TextView since version 1.1.0-alpha03 ^[ref].

Add dependencies to appcompat library

dependencies {
  implementation "androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.1.0"
}

Then drawable in TextView can be tinted from XML like this

<TextView
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  app:drawableStartCompat="@drawable/ic_plus"
  app:drawableTint="@color/red" />

Don't forget to include

xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"

and to extend your Activity from AppCompatActivity.

The programmatic way to do this is

       Drawable[] drawables = textView.getCompoundDrawables();
       if (drawables[0] != null) {  // left drawable
           drawables[0].setColorFilter(color, Mode.MULTIPLY);
       }

This works for all API levels.

This is your best option for pre-Marshmallow devices.