Android Support Library Snackbar with indefinite length

Question

I see that the Snackbar will only take either LENGTH_LONG or LENGTH_SHORT when determining the length of its display on screen.

I would like to have it displayed until someone swipes it off the screen. This is for some cases when you have persistent errors, like when you have no internet and you want to notify the user without having it disappearing off the screen after 2750ms when selecting LENGTH_LONG.

Of course I can use setDuration to a ridiculously long milliseconds values, but is there no way to just set it up so that it doesn't disappears until the user dismisses it?

It's worth to note that the guidelines of Material Design specifically state that Snackbars are transient view elements. Meaning that they should not in any case be stuck on the screen because they block out other elements on the screen. — Edward van Raak, Jun 27 '15 at 16:24
Agreed and good point. Do you think the no internet message must be build inside a view on my UI instead? How would one notify a user of "no internet" if snackbars are not the right tools? — Simon, Jun 27 '15 at 16:32
If an active/permanent connection is really important I sometimes change the Toolbar to another color, change an icon or show a notification. If it's just a Recycler/ListView that loads data you should just show the message there (with a refresh button) until it's replaced by another fragment. — Edward van Raak, Jun 27 '15 at 16:37
Use snackbar with user input https://androidbycode.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/material-design-snackbar-using-the-design-support-library/ — ecle, Jun 27 '15 at 22:35

Dan · Answer 1 · 2015-08-25T21:38:36.893

63

The latest version of the Android Support Library (22.2.1), now includes LENGTH_INDEFINITE.

The following will show the Snackbar until it is dismissed or another Snackbar is shown.

Snackbar.make(view, "Your Snackbar", Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE)
        .setAction("Your Action", null).show();

edited Aug 25 '15 at 21:38

answered Jul 18 '15 at 14:17

Dan

3,879
5
36
50

Works fine in emulator ... but at least on my device (Moto G4 Plus with Android 7.0) the snackbar doesn't get displayed. So it comes down to what @Edward added as comment to the question itself: [material design](https://material.io/design/components/snackbars.html) does not want this – yasd Dec 28 '18 at 18:21

BrentM · Answer 2 · 2015-07-31T23:07:40.307

UPDATE: As mentioned this is now possible with the release of Android support library 22.2.1, use the LENGTH_INDEFINITE flag

It is not possible to set an indefinite display of a Snackbar when using the official implementation from the Android Design Support library.

While doing this may violate the Material Design philosophy of a Snackbar, there are 3rd party Snackbar implementations that do allow this. Here is an example:

https://github.com/nispok/snackbar

This project allows the following values for duration of display:

LENGTH_SHORT: 2s
LENGTH_LONG: 3.5s (default)
LENGTH_INDEFINTE: Indefinite; ideal for persistent errors

Beware that this project is no longer being developed due to the release of the official Snackbar implementation.

It's possible now with support-design 22.2.1 recently released. — Learn OpenGL ES, Jul 31 '15 at 15:19

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 10 '18 at 10:54

I am using com.android.support:appcompat-v7:26.1.0 and Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE works just as it should be. A sample could be like the following:

private HashMap<Long, Snackbar> mTokenSnackbarMap = new LinkedHashMap<>();

private void dropPoint(@NonNull Location location) {
    final Long token = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime();
    // <submitPoint> is the callback to be executed
    // at a time in the future, if the "cancel" button
    // of the Snackbar isn't clicked until that time.
    Runnable submitPoint = () -> {
        Snackbar bar = mTokenSnackbarMap.get(token);
        if (bar != null) {
            // "cancel" button of the Snackbar wasn't clicked,
            // but our time is up. Dismiss the Snackbar.
            bar.dismiss();
            mTokenSnackbarMap.remove(token);
            Log.i(TAG, "dropPoint: dismiss snackbar");
        }
        mDatabase.add(Point.Factory.create(uid, location));
        Log.i(TAG, "dropPoint: addPoint");
    };

    // The indefinite Snackbar allowing arbitrary cancellation.
    Snackbar snackbar = Snackbar.make(mMainView, R.string.point_pending, Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE)
        .setAction(R.string.cancel, (v) -> {
                    mTokenSnackbarMap.remove(token);
                    mUiHandler.removeCallbacks(submitPoint, token);
                    Log.i(TAG, "dropPoint: cancel snackbar");
                });
    mTokenSnackbarMap.put(token, snackbar);
    mUiHandler.postAtTime(submitPoint, token,
                SystemClock.uptimeMillis() + Constants.POINT_DELAY_MILLIS);
    Log.i(TAG, "dropPoint: postAtTime");
    snackbar.show();
}

Mohsents · Answer 4 · 2021-04-25T12:09:30.383

1

Based on Documentation, you can use LENGTH_INDEFINITE flag while set duration:

Snackbar.make(view, "my snackbar", Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE).show();

edited Apr 25 '21 at 12:09

answered Dec 07 '20 at 07:03

Mohsents

691
11
9

How do you plan to dismiss it? You can't. You need a reference to snackbar to later dismiss it. – johngray1965 Apr 24 '21 at 16:55
Of course. But you can do it as simplest way. – Mohsents Apr 25 '21 at 12:13
not working now – Noor Hossain Dec 04 '22 at 07:21

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 01 '17 at 00:56

Snackbars automatically time out from the screen. They should not be persistent or be stacked, as they are above other elements on screen.

Hence, Snackbars seems to be unsuitable for your use case of notifying users until the user does something to dismiss it.

Instead, you should consider using Dialog

Dialogs always retain focus until dismissed or a required action has been taken

For more information, please refer to:

Material Design Guidelines - Snackbars

Material Design Guidelines - Dialogs

Android Support Library Snackbar with indefinite length

5 Answers5

Linked