How to make the textview blinking

Question

Guys i have a textview which i need it to be blinking please help me with it.

<TextView 
       android:id="@+id/usage"
       android:layout_marginTop="220dip"
       android:layout_marginLeft="45dip"
       android:layout_marginRight="15dip"
       android:typeface="serif"            
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:text="Google "
       android:textColor="#030900"/>

I want the google text to be blinking

It's too late, but here (https://github.com/hanks-zyh/HTextView) lots of cool animations — mmaksitaliev, Sep 09 '16 at 14:25

score 247 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 23 '22 at 06:13

247

You can use this:

TextView myText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.myText );

Animation anim = new AlphaAnimation(0.0f, 1.0f);
anim.setDuration(50); //You can manage the blinking time with this parameter
anim.setStartOffset(20);
anim.setRepeatMode(Animation.REVERSE);
anim.setRepeatCount(Animation.INFINITE);
myText.startAnimation(anim);

It's the same answer I gave in this post Blinking Text in android view

edited Dec 23 '22 at 06:13

starball

20,030
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answered Aug 16 '12 at 16:19

SolArabehety

8,467
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2

I partially agree with PrabhuM, however Gaurav's answer below is more elegant: define the animation in XML is arguably better MVC style. – ATutorMe Nov 11 '15 at 08:15

score 44 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 15 '16 at 10:37

Use XML Animations for this purpose :

R.anim.blink

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <alpha android:fromAlpha="0.0"
        android:toAlpha="1.0"
        android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
        android:duration="600"
        android:repeatMode="reverse"
        android:repeatCount="infinite"/>
</set>

Blink Activity: use it like this :-

public class BlinkActivity extends Activity implements AnimationListener {

    TextView txtMessage;
    Button btnStart;

    // Animation
    Animation animBlink;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_blink);

        txtMessage = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtMessage);
        btnStart = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnStart);

        // load the animation
        animBlink = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this,
                R.anim.blink);

        // set animation listener
        animBlink.setAnimationListener(this);

        // button click event
        btnStart.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                txtMessage.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

                // start the animation
                txtMessage.startAnimation(animBlink);
            }
        });

    }

    @Override
    public void onAnimationEnd(Animation animation) {
        // Take any action after completing the animation

        // check for blink animation
        if (animation == animBlink) {
        }

    }

    @Override
    public void onAnimationRepeat(Animation animation) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onAnimationStart(Animation animation) {

    }

}

Let me know if you have any queries..

this should be the accepted answer! thanks for sharing. – Sam Jun 22 '17 at 10:38 — Sam, Jun 22 '17 at 10:38

ademar111190 · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-23T14:18:34.547

Edited

It is a deprecated answer to Android before version 3.0 honeycomb, please uses SolArabehety's answer or look at this thread.

The only reason I keep this answer is to historical reasons before android 3.0 Android animations had a lot of problems, this "bad" solution work at that time, nowadays it is unthinkable to use it, so just go for an animation solution, don't use this code.

Original Answer

package teste.blink;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class TesteBlinkActivity extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        blink();
}

private void blink(){
    final Handler handler = new Handler();
    new Thread(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
        int timeToBlink = 1000;    //in milissegunds
        try{Thread.sleep(timeToBlink);}catch (Exception e) {}
            handler.post(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                    public void run() {
                    TextView txt = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.usage);
                    if(txt.getVisibility() == View.VISIBLE){
                        txt.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
                    }else{
                        txt.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                    }
                    blink();
                }
                });
            }
        }).start();
    }

<TextView 
   android:id="@+id/usage"
   android:layout_marginTop="220dip"
   android:layout_marginLeft="45dip"
   android:layout_marginRight="15dip"
   android:typeface="serif"            
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="Google "
   android:textColor="#030900"/>

note that the text color is dark, so I suppose the bottom is clear — ademar111190, Feb 15 '12 at 13:55
@sany have others ways, for example AlphaAnimation, thread is only one of many ways. — ademar111190, Aug 16 '12 at 18:06
How does this should not all views (TextView) should be updated from Main Thread? — Gaurav Agarwal, Dec 22 '12 at 22:49
This is a TERRIBLE answer. Use Android animations! See the answer below by SolArabehety — zundi, May 03 '17 at 15:36
@zundi It is obviously a bad answer if you are not considering the context, this is an answer to early of 2012, we have a lot of issues in this period with old android animations classes in old android versions like 1.6 and 2.1, One of the mentioned issues was making impossible to build a blink animation in that old android versions and this answer makes possible to blink a text in that android versions. To a better answer to today android versions withou bug, see the answer of solarabehety — ademar111190, May 04 '17 at 22:25
@ademar111190 You should update your comment indicating that this isn't the best answer as of today. — zundi, May 05 '17 at 03:38

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 29 '16 at 20:00

Don't need set for this. Just alpha:

anim/flash_leave_now.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <alpha xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       android:duration="900"
       android:fromAlpha="1.0"
       android:repeatCount="infinite"
       android:repeatMode="reverse"
       android:toAlpha="0.2"/>

And in code:

mTextView.setAnimation(AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(getContext(), R.anim.flash_leave_now));

Simple and Nice! worked for me. – C.F.G Apr 06 '23 at 13:31 — C.F.G, Apr 06 '23 at 13:31

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 19 '20 at 17:17

8

Create an AlphaAnimation and apply it to the textview in the activity where you setup the textview. The blinking would be accomplished by repeating an animation from 1.0 alpha to 0.0 alpha to 1.0 alpha.

Edit: Google provideth.

edited Aug 19 '20 at 17:17

mirabilos

5,123
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answered Feb 15 '12 at 13:16

Nick Campion

10,479
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can you please give me an example or link on that – Goofy Feb 15 '12 at 13:17
can you also please tel how to underline a textview. please give me an example on that also – Goofy Feb 15 '12 at 13:24
1

@Goofy this is pretty absurd. Use google. You will probably need to apply a UnderlineSpan to the text before inserting it into a textview. – Nick Campion Feb 15 '12 at 13:33
android:textStyle="bold" this will make the text bold but i am telling you about UNDERLINING a text – Goofy Feb 15 '12 at 13:35

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered May 24 '19 at 21:53

2

Just use the <blink/> tag.

<blink
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content">

  <TextView 
       android:id="@+id/usage"
       android:layout_marginTop="220dip"
       android:layout_marginLeft="45dip"
       android:layout_marginRight="15dip"
       android:typeface="serif"            
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:text="Google "
       android:textColor="#030900"/>

</blink>

answered May 24 '19 at 21:53

Hounshell

5,321
4
34
51

does this blink tag still exists? – Sadda Hussain Feb 03 '20 at 13:03
1

Intellij IDE reports tag not supported in xml – Raja Nagendra Kumar Feb 15 '21 at 02:49

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 22 '18 at 22:39

Courtesy to the top answer, this is what i did:

 textBlink = new TimerTask() {
        int countdown = 10;

        @Override
        public void run() {
            runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    if (countdown <= 0) {
                        timer.cancel();
                        textview.setVisibility(View.GONE);
                    } else {
                            textview.setVisibility(textview.getVisibility() == View.VISIBLE?View.GONE:View.VISIBLE);
                        countdown--;
                    }
                }
            });
        }
    };

then somewhere on the code:

  timer = new Timer();
  timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(textBlink,0,500);

This will do a blink effect for 5 seconds. Recommended for if you don't want the fadeIn-fadeOut effect.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 30 '18 at 04:26

private fun blink() {
        val handler = Handler()
        Thread(Runnable {
            val timeToBlink = 500    //in milissegunds
            try {
                Thread.sleep(timeToBlink.toLong())
            } catch (e: Exception) {
            }

            handler.post(Runnable {

                if (usage.visibility == View.VISIBLE) {
                    usage.visibility = View.INVISIBLE
                } else {
                    usage.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                }
                blink()
            })
        }).start()
    }

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 10 '19 at 07:06

public final class BlinkEffectUtils {

    private static BlinkEffectUtils blinkEffect;

    public enum PROPERTY_TYPE {
        BACKGROUND_COLOR,
        TEXT_COLOR
    }

    private BlinkEffectUtils() {
    }

    public static BlinkEffectUtils getInstance(Context context) {
        if (blinkEffect == null) {
            blinkEffect = new BlinkEffectUtils();
        }

        return blinkEffect;
    }

    public void setBlinkEffect(Object targetView, PROPERTY_TYPE property_type, int duration, int defaultColor, int effectColor) {
        String propertyName = "";

        switch (property_type) {

            case TEXT_COLOR:
                propertyName = "textColor";
                break;

            case BACKGROUND_COLOR:
                propertyName = "backgroundColor";
                break;
        }

        @SuppressLint("ObjectAnimatorBinding")
        ObjectAnimator anim = ObjectAnimator.ofInt(targetView, propertyName,
                effectColor,
                defaultColor);
        anim.setDuration(duration);
        anim.setEvaluator(new ArgbEvaluator());
        anim.setRepeatMode(ValueAnimator.REVERSE);
        anim.setRepeatCount(ValueAnimator.INFINITE);
        anim.start();

    }

}

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 15 '12 at 13:18

0

You can make an animation or maybe why not making it View.VISIBLE and View.INVISIBLE with a timer? I think the better way is the animation with alpha indeed :)

answered Feb 15 '12 at 13:18

Climbatize

1,103
19
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score -1 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 17 '12 at 20:30

Here is my helper implementation using an alpha animation:

    public void blinkText(final TextView text_to_animate, int durationMillis) {

        final AlphaAnimation fade_out = new AlphaAnimation(1.0f, 0.0f);
        //ScaleAnimation scale_it = new ScaleAnimation(1.0f, 1.25f, 1.0f, 1.25f);
        fade_out.setDuration(durationMillis);

        final AlphaAnimation fade_in = new AlphaAnimation(0.0f, 1.0f);
        //ScaleAnimation scale_it = new ScaleAnimation(1.0f, 1.25f, 1.0f, 1.25f);
        fade_in.setDuration(durationMillis);

        fade_out.setAnimationListener(new AnimationListener() {
            public void onAnimationEnd(Animation arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            if (recording == true)
                text_to_animate.startAnimation(fade_in);
            }
            public void onAnimationRepeat(Animation arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub              
            }

            public void onAnimationStart(Animation arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub              
            }

        });

        fade_in.setAnimationListener(new AnimationListener() {
            public void onAnimationEnd(Animation arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                if (recording == true)
                    text_to_animate.startAnimation(fade_out);
            }
            public void onAnimationRepeat(Animation arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub              
            }

            public void onAnimationStart(Animation arg0) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub              
            }

        });

        text_to_animate.startAnimation(fade_out);       

    }

How to make the textview blinking

11 Answers11

Edited

Original Answer

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