diff --git a/core/java/android/text/method/TransformationMethod.java b/core/java/android/text/method/TransformationMethod.java
index b542109d0beb9..8f3b334abbbda 100644
--- a/core/java/android/text/method/TransformationMethod.java
+++ b/core/java/android/text/method/TransformationMethod.java
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ public interface TransformationMethod
      * Beware that the returned text must be exactly the same length as
      * the source text, and that if the source text is Editable, the returned
      * text must mirror it dynamically instead of doing a one-time copy.
+     * The method should not return {@code null} unless {@code source}
+     * is {@code null}.
      */
     public CharSequence getTransformation(CharSequence source, View view);
 
diff --git a/core/java/android/widget/TextView.java b/core/java/android/widget/TextView.java
index 4a2c2c50a7835..a538f7fa3c875 100644
--- a/core/java/android/widget/TextView.java
+++ b/core/java/android/widget/TextView.java
@@ -1508,6 +1508,13 @@ public class TextView extends View implements ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener
         }
 
         setText(text, bufferType);
+        if (mText == null) {
+            mText = "";
+        }
+        if (mTransformed == null) {
+            mTransformed = "";
+        }
+
         if (textIsSetFromXml) {
             mTextSetFromXmlOrResourceId = true;
         }
@@ -2191,6 +2198,14 @@ public class TextView extends View implements ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener
         return (mText instanceof Editable) ? (Editable) mText : null;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @hide
+     */
+    @VisibleForTesting
+    public CharSequence getTransformed() {
+        return mTransformed;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Gets the vertical distance between lines of text, in pixels.
      * Note that markup within the text can cause individual lines
@@ -5532,6 +5547,11 @@ public class TextView extends View implements ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener
      * PrecomputedText mismatches with this TextView, IllegalArgumentException is thrown. To ensure
      * the parameters match, you can call {@link TextView#setTextMetricsParams} before calling this.
      *
+     * Subclasses overriding this method should ensure that the following post condition holds,
+     * in order to guarantee the safety of the view's measurement and layout operations:
+     * regardless of the input, after calling #setText both {@code mText} and {@code mTransformed}
+     * will be different from {@code null}.
+     *
      * @param text text to be displayed
      *
      * @attr ref android.R.styleable#TextView_text
@@ -5554,6 +5574,11 @@ public class TextView extends View implements ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener
      * {@link android.text.Editable.Factory} to create final or intermediate
      * {@link Editable Editables}.
      *
+     * Subclasses overriding this method should ensure that the following post condition holds,
+     * in order to guarantee the safety of the view's measurement and layout operations:
+     * regardless of the input, after calling #setText both {@code mText} and {@code mTransformed}
+     * will be different from {@code null}.
+     *
      * @param text text to be displayed
      *
      * @see #setText(CharSequence)
@@ -5706,6 +5731,10 @@ public class TextView extends View implements ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener
         } else {
             mTransformed = mTransformation.getTransformation(text, this);
         }
+        if (mTransformed == null) {
+            // Should not happen if the transformation method follows the non-null postcondition.
+            mTransformed = "";
+        }
 
         final int textLength = text.length();
 
diff --git a/core/tests/coretests/src/android/widget/TextViewTest.java b/core/tests/coretests/src/android/widget/TextViewTest.java
index 4f1efbfed5f70..1c5610b1bc7da 100644
--- a/core/tests/coretests/src/android/widget/TextViewTest.java
+++ b/core/tests/coretests/src/android/widget/TextViewTest.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import static junit.framework.Assert.assertTrue;
 
 import android.app.Activity;
 import android.app.Instrumentation;
+import android.content.Context;
 import android.content.Intent;
 import android.graphics.Paint;
 import android.platform.test.annotations.Presubmit;
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
 
+import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.util.Locale;
 
 /**
@@ -320,6 +322,15 @@ public class TextViewTest {
         assertTrue(mTextView.useDynamicLayout());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    @UiThreadTest
+    public void testConstructor_doesNotLeaveTextNull() {
+        mTextView = new NullSetTextTextView(mActivity);
+        // Check that mText and mTransformed are empty string instead of null.
+        assertEquals("", mTextView.getText().toString());
+        assertEquals("", mTextView.getTransformed().toString());
+    }
+
     private String createLongText() {
         int size = 600 * 1000;
         final StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(size);
@@ -328,4 +339,26 @@ public class TextViewTest {
         }
         return builder.toString();
     }
+
+    private class NullSetTextTextView extends TextView {
+        NullSetTextTextView(Context context) {
+            super(context);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void setText(CharSequence text, BufferType type) {
+            // #setText will be called from the TextView constructor. Here we reproduce
+            // the situation when the method sets mText and mTransformed to null.
+            try {
+                final Field textField = TextView.class.getDeclaredField("mText");
+                textField.setAccessible(true);
+                textField.set(this, null);
+                final Field transformedField = TextView.class.getDeclaredField("mTransformed");
+                transformedField.setAccessible(true);
+                transformedField.set(this, null);
+            } catch (NoSuchFieldException | IllegalAccessException e) {
+                // Empty.
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }