Android character by character display text animation

Question

Anyone knows any efficient method of perform an animation that what is has to do is to display a text, character by character? Like:

T
Th
Thi
This
This i
This is
...

And so on.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This may not be the most elegant solution, but the simplest is probably a quick subclass of TextView with a Handler that updates the text every so often until the complete sequence is displayed:

public class Typewriter extends TextView {

    private CharSequence mText;
    private int mIndex;
    private long mDelay = 500; //Default 500ms delay


    public Typewriter(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public Typewriter(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    private Handler mHandler = new Handler();
    private Runnable characterAdder = new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            setText(mText.subSequence(0, mIndex++));
            if(mIndex <= mText.length()) {
                mHandler.postDelayed(characterAdder, mDelay);
            }
        }
    };

    public void animateText(CharSequence text) {
        mText = text;
        mIndex = 0;

        setText("");
        mHandler.removeCallbacks(characterAdder);
        mHandler.postDelayed(characterAdder, mDelay);
    }

    public void setCharacterDelay(long millis) {
        mDelay = millis;
    }
}

You can then use this in an Activity like so:

public class MyActivity extends Activity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        Typewriter writer = new Typewriter(this);
        setContentView(writer);

        //Add a character every 150ms
        writer.setCharacterDelay(150);
        writer.animateText("Sample String");
    }
}

If you want some animation effects with each letter added, perhaps look at subclassing TextSwitcher instead.

Hope that Helps!

Answer 2

use Devunwired's Typewriter class

then, in the layout:

<com.example.fmm.Typewriter
    android:id="@+id/typewriter"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

code in the activity:

Typewriter writer = (Typewriter)findViewById(R.id.typewriter);
        //Add a character every 150ms
        writer.setCharacterDelay(150);
        writer.animateText("Sample String");

Answer 3

No need to set an extra class Use this, here tv is a textview in your layout just call

setCharacterDelay(150);
animateText("Sample String");

private Handler mHandler = new Handler();
private Runnable characterAdder = new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        tv.setText(mText.subSequence(0, mIndex++));
        if(mIndex <= mText.length()) {
            mHandler.postDelayed(characterAdder, mDelay);
        }
    }
};

public void animateText(CharSequence text) {
    mText = text;
    mIndex = 0;

    tv.setText("");
    mHandler.removeCallbacks(characterAdder);
    mHandler.postDelayed(characterAdder, mDelay);

}

public void setCharacterDelay(long millis) {
    mDelay = millis;
}

Answer 4

this new copy for Devunwired with xml layout

    public class Typewriter extends TextView {

    private CharSequence mText;
    private int mIndex;
    private long mDelay = 500; //Default 500ms delay


    public Typewriter(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public Typewriter(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    private Handler mHandler = new Handler();
    private Runnable characterAdder = new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            setText(mText.subSequence(0, mIndex++));
            if(mIndex <= mText.length()) {
                mHandler.postDelayed(characterAdder, mDelay);
            }
        }
    };

    public void animateText(CharSequence text) {
        mText = text;
        mIndex = 0;

        setText("");
        mHandler.removeCallbacks(characterAdder);
        mHandler.postDelayed(characterAdder, mDelay);
    }

    public void setCharacterDelay(long millis) {
        mDelay = millis;
    }
}

code use

        textView = (Typewriter)findViewById(R.id.textView1);
    //Add a character every 150ms
    textView.setCharacterDelay(150);
    textView.animateText("Sample String");

then define textView in classStart

Answer 5

I used a recursive method, also added a bit delay in between words to have more human feel. Send the textView as view along with the text and send '1' as the length to type from start

  private fun typingAnimation(view: TextView, text: String, length: Int) {
    var delay = 100L
    if(Character.isWhitespace(text.elementAt(length-1))){
        delay = 600L
    }
    view.text = text.substring(0,length)
    when (length) {
        text.length -> return
        else -> Handler().postDelayed({
            typingAnimation(view, text, length+1 )
        }, delay)
    }
}