How to add a horizontal scroll indicator for Android TabLayout

Question

I am looking to add a horizontal scroll view for an Android TabLayout.

The TabLayout has multiple tabs in it and is scrollable. Due to multiple tabs on it, some of them are not visible at the first glance. The users have to scroll to get to the tabs on the far right(which are usually hidden) and so those tabs are not getting user's attention.

The thought is to have a horizontal scroll indicator or an arrow indicating that there are more tabs to the right so the users can scroll to find/use them.

The design idea is to have a scrollIndicator and not have a tabIndicator. I found the following image from Google which is closer to the idea.

Thanks in advance,

Betteann

What about horizontal RecyclerView instead? – Leacock

@Leacock The idea is about having multiple tabs like instagram bottom tab, tablayout would be straightforward to implement that. – Betteann

can this relate? – Leacock

I looked into the link above. I am using the app:tabMode="scrollable" so the TabLayout is scrollable but there is no scroll indicator. The link above shows a tabIndicator, which indicates the tab that is currently selected. – Betteann

Answer 1

You can achieve what you want by encapsulating the tab layout inside a horizontal scroll view like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <HorizontalScrollView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingBottom="8dp"
        android:scrollbars="horizontal">

        <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout
            android:id="@+id/tabLayout"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
            app:tabGravity="center"
            app:tabIndicator="@color/white"
            app:tabMode="fixed">

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 1"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 2"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 3"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 4"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 5"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 6"/>


            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 7"/>



            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 8"/>



            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 9"/>

            <com.google.android.material.tabs.TabItem
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="Tab 10"/>
        </com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout>

    </HorizontalScrollView>

</LinearLayout>

It will look like this ......

Pierian

Answer 2

Hi you can add app:tabMode="scroll"

in an example use it as

<android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
            android:id="@+id/tabs"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            app:tabMode="scroll"
            app:tabGravity="fill"/>
    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

Macrae