ShimmerRecyclerView for Android

An efficient, lightweight custom Android RecyclerView with integrated shimmer animation and skeleton loading placeholder views. Seamlessly indicate background data fetching without messy layout toggling or boilerplate adapter logic. Fully compatible with AndroidX, Kotlin, Java, and modern Gradle builds.

Powered by the hardware-accelerated Facebook Shimmer rendering pipeline for stutter-free 120Hz display support.

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Key Features

• Zero-Boilerplate Skeleton Screens: Toggle loading placeholders with simple showShimmerAdapter() and hideShimmerAdapter() methods.
• Hardware Accelerated: Built-in Facebook Shimmer engine ensures smooth rendering on high-refresh-rate screens.
• Flexible Layout Managers: Native support for vertical, horizontal, and grid layout styles directly from XML.
• Dual Animation Modes: Supports both full-item shimmer and selective masking (view background based).
• AndroidX & Java Ready: 100% interoperable with both modern Kotlin extensions and legacy Java codebases.

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Visual Preview

List Shimmer View	Grid Skeleton View

Selective Mask (List)	Selective Mask (Grid)

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Quick Setup & Installation

Step 1: Add JitPack Repository

Add JitPack to your project's root settings.gradle:

dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        maven { url '[https://jitpack.io](https://jitpack.io)' }
    }
}

Step 2: Add Gradle Dependency

Add the library dependency to your app module's build.gradle:

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.github.appuraja1:ShimmerRecyclerView:v1.1.0'
}

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How to Use

1. Define XML Layout

Add ShimmerRecyclerView directly to your layout XML and specify your skeleton placeholder view:

<com.appuraja.views.shimmer.ShimmerRecyclerView
    xmlns:android="[http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android](http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android)"
    xmlns:app="[http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto](http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto)"
    android:id="@+id/shimmerRecyclerView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    app:shimmer_demo_child_count="8"
    app:shimmer_demo_grid_child_count="2"
    app:shimmer_demo_layout="@layout/layout_demo_grid"
    app:shimmer_demo_layout_manager_type="grid"
    app:shimmer_demo_angle="20"
    app:shimmer_demo_duration="1000" />

2. Control Shimmer in Activity or Fragment

Kotlin Example

val shimmerRecyclerView = findViewById<ShimmerRecyclerView>(R.id.shimmerRecyclerView)

// 1. Trigger shimmer loading while fetching data
shimmerRecyclerView.showShimmerAdapter()

// 2. Hide shimmer and render actual data when ready
viewModel.data.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { dataList ->
    myActualAdapter.submitList(dataList)
    shimmerRecyclerView.adapter = myActualAdapter
    shimmerRecyclerView.hideShimmerAdapter()
}

Java Example

ShimmerRecyclerView shimmerRecyclerView = findViewById(R.id.shimmerRecyclerView);

// 1. Show skeleton loader
shimmerRecyclerView.showShimmerAdapter();

// 2. Set actual adapter and dismiss skeleton loader once loaded
shimmerRecyclerView.setAdapter(myActualAdapter);
shimmerRecyclerView.hideShimmerAdapter();

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XML Attributes & Customization

Fine-tune your skeleton loading states using these attributes:

XML Attribute	Programmatic Method	Default	Description
app:shimmer_demo_layout	setDemoLayoutReference(resId)	—	(Required) Layout resource used as the skeleton placeholder.
app:shimmer_demo_child_count	setDemoChildCount(count)	10	Total number of dummy placeholder items to display.
app:shimmer_demo_layout_manager_type	setDemoLayoutManager(type)	linear_vertical	Layout mode: linear_vertical, linear_horizontal, or grid.
app:shimmer_demo_grid_child_count	setGridChildCount(count)	2	Column span count when using grid layout.
app:shimmer_demo_duration	setDemoShimmerDuration(ms)	1000	Duration of one full shimmer animation sweep in milliseconds.
app:shimmer_demo_angle	—	0	Angle tilt of the shimmer wave line (between 0 and 30 degrees).
app:shimmer_demo_mask_width	setDemoShimmerMaskWidth(float)	0.5	Width ratio of the animated light gradient (0.0 to 1.0).
app:shimmer_demo_shimmer_color	—	#A0FFFFFF	Tint color of the animated shimmer sweep line.
app:shimmer_demo_reverse_animation	—	false	When true, sweeps right-to-left instead of left-to-right.
app:shimmer_demo_view_holder_item_background	—	transparent	Background drawable/color applied behind selective shimmer masks.

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ProGuard & R8 Optimization

Rules are bundled via consumer configurations, but if manual keep rules are preferred:

-keep class com.appuraja.views.shimmer.** { *; }
-keep class com.facebook.shimmer.** { *; }

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Maintainer & Contributions

• Appu Raja - bookboard.co@gmail.com

Pull requests, feature recommendations, and issue reports are welcome. Please star the repository if it helps your Android project!

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License

Copyright 2026 Appu Raja

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   [http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.