TextView - setting the text size programmatically doesn't seem to work

the method TextView.setTextSize(int unit , float size); takes two parameters .

Try this :

text.setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_SP,14);

refer this and this.

UPDATE: Now the setTextSize(float size) will set the text size automatically in "scaled pixel" units. no need to mention the COMPLEX_UNIT_SP manually. Refer to the documentation.

This fixed the issue for me. I got uniform font size across all devices.

 textView.setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_PX,getResources().getDimension(R.dimen.font));

Currently, setTextSize(float size) method will work well so we don't need to use another method for change text size

android.widget.TextView.java source code

/**
 * Set the default text size to the given value, interpreted as "scaled
 * pixel" units.  This size is adjusted based on the current density and
 * user font size preference.
 *
 * <p>Note: if this TextView has the auto-size feature enabled than this function is no-op.
 *
 * @param size The scaled pixel size.
 *
 * @attr ref android.R.styleable#TextView_textSize
 */
@android.view.RemotableViewMethod
public void setTextSize(float size) {
    setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_SP, size);
}

Example using

textView.setTextSize(20); // set your text size = 20sp