Android Multiline Snackbar

Question

I'm trying to leverage new Snackbar from Android Design Support Library to display multiline snackbar, as shown in http://www.google.com/design/spec/components/snackbars-toasts.html#snackbars-toasts-specs:

import android.support.design.widget.Snackbar;

final String snack = "First line\nSecond line\nThird line";
Snackbar.make(mView, snack, Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG).show();

It displays only First line... on my Nexus 7. How to make it display all lines?

PS: I tried Toast and it displayed all lines.

Incomprehension

AFAIK, snackbars are meant for quick user alert/feedback and have been designed to support it i.e. "Single Line". If you want to show an alert/feedback which has multilines, i would suggest show a dialog as user can take action after reading your message. – Gadolinium

@Gadolinium think about internationalization. Even if English string can fit into single line, German may not. Also Google provided Material Design spec for multiline snackbar (I linked it in the question) - why if it should be avoided? – Incomprehension

Answer 1

Just set the maxLines attribute of Snackbars Textview

View snackbarView = snackbar.getView();
TextView textView = (TextView) snackbarView.findViewById(android.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text);
textView.setMaxLines(5);  // show multiple line

If you're using the more recent "com.google.android.material:material:1.0.0"dependency, then you will use this: com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text to access the Snackbar's TextView.

You can use even R.id.snackbar_text as well. it's work for me.

Unbacked

Is there a way to calculate the actual number of lines that are needed, or do we have to guess? – Novel

@Novel may android have but you can specify maxLine if text is small length it will automatically becomes shrink... – Unbacked

For the latest androidx libs should be com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text. But IMHO the ID might change in the future so this practice should be avoided. – Ernest

Since this relies on the TextView ID that can change with each version of the support lib, this answer is not really a permanent solution, but a hack. It may work, but it may also randomly break in production. – Diactinic

Is there a recommended API for this? I agree that this method is a hack, but if there's no API exposed for this, then there's no alternative. – Teeters

Now that Toast is even more useless than usual with the deprecation of setview() and getview() as of API level 30, customizing the Snackbar has become more important. Hopefully Snackbar customization won't get deprecated too. – Freud

This is not permanent solution. Please refer below Gabriele Mariotti solution. Its permanent solution. – Adoration

Answer 2

One can override the predefined value used for that in values.xml of the app

<integer name="design_snackbar_text_max_lines">5</integer>

This value is used by Snackbar by default.

Sachs

This practice should be avoided, since it's a private integer defined by design library, which might be renamed or deleted without generating any compilation or runtime error in your app. – Lantz

Yes, but I think it should be clarified that this is very different from accessing private resources of the OS. This will work as long as you stick to the same version of the design library. If you update to a newer version you have to test your app thoroughly anyway, just put this on your checklist. – Inherit

Just letting you know that this does not work on kindle fire devices which seems to only show 1 line. @Nilesh answer did work. – Arizona

Downvoted as I don't like the idea of the checklist getting longer. – Brnaba

Answer 3

With the Material Components Library you can define it using with the snackbarTextViewStyle attribute in the app theme:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.MaterialComponents.*">
  ...
  <item name="snackbarTextViewStyle">@style/snackbar_text</item>
</style>

<style name="snackbar_text" parent="@style/Widget.MaterialComponents.Snackbar.TextView">
    ...
    <item name="android:maxLines">5</item>
</style>

Note: it requires the version 1.2.0 of the library.

Smoothspoken

Good point, but the library is still in alpha state (May 2020) :) – Gulick

this doesn't seems to work anymore. and it looks like more than two lines is not possible: material guidelines – Famulus

Answer 4

Snackbar snackbar =  Snackbar.make(view, "Text",Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG).setDuration(Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG);
View snackbarView = snackbar.getView();
TextView tv= (TextView) snackbarView.findViewById(android.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text);
tv.setMaxLines(3); 
snackbar.show();

Circularize

Answer 5

Here is my finding on this :

Android does support multiline snackbars but it has a max limit of 2 lines which matches the design guideline where it says that the height of multiline snack bar should be 80dp (almost 2 lines)

To verify this, i used the cheesesquare android sample project. If i use following string:

Snackbar.make(view, "Random Text \n When a second snackbar is triggered while the first is displayed", Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .setAction("Action", null).show();

In this case, i can see the multiline snack bar with the text of 2nd line, i.e. "When a second snackbar is triggered" but if i change this code to following implementation:

Snackbar.make(view, "Random Text \n When \n a second snackbar is triggered while the first is displayed", Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .setAction("Action", null).show();

I can only see the "Random Text\nWhen ...". This means that design library is intentionally forcing the textview to be of max 2 lines.

Gadolinium

I accepted this answer however material specs mention snackbar with 112dp too: i.imgur.com/1ACCoQb.png – Incomprehension

can you name the height of multiline snack bar in dimension? – Pleader

@alp see google.com/design/spec/components/… – Torrlow

Don't follow any guidlines if you don't want to accept that guide line. If google is that much right in its guidline and tool than why gradle build system is headache for the developer? – Triple

@DimaKornilov it will be set to 112dp if and only if you have text that is fully 2 lines long AND you provide an action. In that case the action will cause the Snackbar to expand to 112dp. – Stylite

@Triple I don't see the connection between the build system and the design guidelines. – Superphysical

Answer 6

In kotlin you can use extensions.

// SnackbarExtensions.kt

fun Snackbar.allowInfiniteLines(): Snackbar {
    return apply { (view.findViewById<View?>(R.id.snackbar_text) as? TextView?)?.isSingleLine = false }
}

Usage:

Snackbar.make(view, message, Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .allowInfiniteLines()
                        .show()

Pansypant

Nice and clean, I like this solution! FYI the full id is com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text – Mullane

Love seeing a short and sweet kotlin extension that I can readily copy/paste into my project. – Flotage

It is actually the finest solution, and importantly working one 👍✔️ – Nalepka

Answer 7

For Material Design, the reference is com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text

val snack = Snackbar.make(myView, R.string.myLongText, Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE).apply {
                view.findViewById<TextView>(com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text).maxLines = 10
            }
            snack.show()

Afrikaans

Answer 8

In Kotlin, you can just do

Snackbar.make(root_view, "Yo\nYo\nYo!", Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT).apply {
    view.snackbar_text.setSingleLine(false)
    show()
}

You could also replace setSingleLine(false) with maxLines = 3.

Android Studio should prompt you to add

import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.design_layout_snackbar_include.view.*

EDIT

I haven't been able to get this to work again, so I'll just share what I think is the cleanest way to write in Kotlin what a few others have already shared:

import com.google.android.material.R as MaterialR

Snackbar.make(root_view, "Yo\nYo\nYo!", Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT).apply {
    val textView = view.findViewById<TextView>(MaterialR.id.snackbar_text)
    textView.setSingleLine(false)
    show()
}

Alurd

It doesn't offer to use/import snackbar_text . – Eire

@androiddeveloper I can't get it to work again either, so I've updated the answer. – Alurd

Crashes now : java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.widget.TextView.setSingleLine(boolean)' on a null object reference – Eire

@androiddeveloper Do you have this dependency: implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.1.0' and is your Snackbar the com.google.android.material.snackbar.Snackbar one? If not, try android.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text as the resource ID. – Alurd

Those are what you get when you create a new project (and I did), and it crashed. – Eire

@androiddeveloper It must be an issue with the device or OS version. I just tried it with a new "Basic Activity" project and it worked fine, and it seems to be working for others on this page. – Alurd

@androiddeveloper I'd try another solution like this one or this one, which don't require a resource ID to access the TextView. – Alurd

I tested on Pixel 4 with Android 10. Also tested on emulator with Android 10. And tried to update to 1.2.0-alpha06 . Still crash. At first I thought it's because "view" wasn't the correct one, but even after fixing it, and doing findViewById on MainActivity itself, it still couldn't find this view. However, using snackbar.view.findViewById works fine. – Eire

BTW, no need for import com.google.android.material.R as MaterialR . You can use the ID directly: com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text , but it's nice to finally see a useful usage of "as" in imports. How did you find the correct ID though? The layout-inspector doesn't show any attribute of the SnackBar for some reason... – Eire

@androiddeveloper The apply function in my code should cause the view to belong to the snackbar, so I wonder if your code was missing it. I realize the import is unnecessary. I just don't like having full package names in the middle of my code - it's noisy. That ID can be found here and the path for referencing it can be seen here. – Alurd

OK I know what happened. I used it in onClickListener like on a new project, so the "view" was of the FAB. Seems odd that the IDE doesn't warn about this. The "view has double possible meaning here... So this is one of the examples when Kotlin shortcuts can cause bugs quite easily... A possible fix would be to use getView() instead of view which could be an issue. As for the ID, I think the DDMS tool can get it, and also the "developer assistant" app. – Eire

Answer 9

2021 Answer in Kotlin for com.google.android.material:material:1.4.0

isSingleLine = false is required as well as maxLines = 5

Snackbar.make(view, "line 1\nline 2", BaseTransientBottomBar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE)
    .apply {
        this.view.findViewById<TextView>(com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text)?.apply {
            maxLines = 5
            isSingleLine = false
        }
    }
    .show()

Baluchistan

For those who are using this solution, make sure you use this before view.find... – Leif

Answer 10

An alternative to the suggestions that involve hardcoding the resource ID for the textview contained by the snackbar is to iterate to find the TextView. It's safer long-term and lets you update the support library with minimal fear of the ID changing.

Example:

 public static Snackbar getSnackbar(View rootView, String message, int duration) {
    Snackbar snackbar = Snackbar.make(rootView, message, duration);
    ViewGroup snackbarLayout = (ViewGroup) snackbar.getView();

    TextView text = null;

    for (int i = 0; i < snackbarLayout.getChildCount(); i++) {
        View child = snackbarLayout.getChildAt(i);

        // Since action is a button, and Button extends TextView,
        // Need to make sure this is the message TextView, not the 
        // action Button view.
        if(child instanceof TextView && !(child instanceof Button)) {
            text = (TextView) child;
        }
    }

    if (text != null) {
        text.setMaxLines(3);
    }
    return snackbar;
}

Potpourri

text somehow always null – Azzieb

Double check your code. Here's the AOSP source code for the layout of Snackbar You'll notice there is a TextView object there, so it isn't possible for text to be null. – Potpourri

Might be even better to use findViewsWithText, since you already know the text. This solution might break in a couple situations (e.g. if our text view becomes a child of a child of the snackbar layout). – Stannwood

This won't work for me. SnackbarLayout has another view inside of it. So snackbarLayout.getChildAt() will never return a TextView. – Biauriculate

Answer 11

Instead of using setMaxLines, i use setSingleLine to make the textview wrap to its content.

String yourText = "First line\nSecond line\nThird line";
Snackbar snackbar = Snackbar.make(mView, yourText, Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT);
    TextView textView =
        (TextView) snackbar.getView().findViewById(android.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text);
    textView.setSingleLine(false);
snackbar.show();

Yardman

Answer 12

this works for me

Snackbar snackbar =  Snackbar.make(mView, "Your text string", Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE);
((TextView) snackbar.getView().findViewById(android.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text)).setSingleLine(false);
snackbar.show();

Counts

Answer 13

Late, but might be helpful to someone:

public void showSnackBar(String txt, View view){
    final Snackbar snackbar = Snackbar.make(view,txt,Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE)
        .setAction("OK", new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                //do something
            }
        });
    View view = snackbar.getView();
    TextView textView = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.support.design.R.id.snackbar_text);
    textView.setMaxLines(5);
    snackbar.show();
}

Fallow

Wat? You just assigned null to final variable and called it in listener? You want 100% NPE? – Dufrene

@OsipXD Fixed for him :) – Eire

Answer 14

May i suggest you to use com.google.android.material.snackbar.Snackbar. This is the recommanded way by google. First you have to add your snackbar.

final Snackbar snackbar = Snackbar.make(
            findViewById(R.id.activity_layout),
            "snackbar explanation text \n multilines \n\n here",
            Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE)
            .setAction(R.string.action_settings, new View.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(View view) {
                    // your action here
                }
            });

Then to add multilines support

TextView messageView = snackbar.getView().findViewById(R.id.snackbar_text);
                        messageView.setMaxLines(4);
                        

Finally show the snackbar.

snackbar.show();

Complot

Answer 15

There's now a method on Snackbar to do exactly this. For example:

val snackbar = Snackbar.make(view, msgResId, Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG)
snackbar.setTextMaxLines(2)
snackbar.show()

See setTextMaxLines(int)

Tonus

Answer 16

A way to do it which won't crash in case things change on newer versions of the library :

Snackbar.make(...).setAction(...) {
    ...
}.apply {
    (view.findViewById<View?>(R.id.snackbar_text) as? TextView?)?.setSingleLine(false)
}.show()

And a way to do it without having ids being used, setting all TextViews in the Snackbar to have unlimited multi-lines :

@UiThread
fun setAllTextViewsToHaveInfiniteLinesCount(view: View) {
    when (view) {
        is TextView -> view.setSingleLine(false)
        is ViewGroup -> for (child in view.children)
            setAllTextViewsToHaveInfiniteLinesCount(child)
    }
}

Snackbar.make(...).setAction(...) {
    ...
}.apply {
    setAllTextViewsToHaveInfiniteLinesCount(view)
}.show()

The same function in Java:

@UiThread
public static void setAllTextViewsToHaveInfiniteLines(@Nullable final View view) {
    if (view == null)
        return;
    if (view instanceof TextView)
        ((TextView) view).setSingleLine(false);
    else if (view instanceof ViewGroup)
        for (Iterator<View> iterator = ViewGroupKt.getChildren((ViewGroup) view).iterator(); iterator.hasNext(); )
            setAllTextViewsToHaveInfiniteLines(iterator.next());
}

Eire

Answer 17

Just a quick comment, if you are using com.google.android.material:material the prefix or package for R.id should be com.google.android.material

val snackbarView = snackbar.view
val textView = snackbarView.findViewById<TextView>(com.google.android.material.R.id.snackbar_text)
textView.maxLines = 3

Vaillancourt

Answer 18

so as i am using latest material design library from google, com.google.android.material:material:1.1.0 and i used simple following code snipet below, to resolve allow to more lines in snackbar. hope it will help to new developers as well.

TextView messageView = snackbar.getView().findViewById(R.id.snackbar_text);
messageView.setMaxLines(5);

Knelt

Answer 19

To avoid flakiness of other answers can use updateMaxLine, this solution is less likely to break if Google decide to change the id of a text view)

val snackBar = Snackbar.make(view, message, duration)
 snackBar.view.allViews.updateMaxLine(5)
 snackBar.show()

just note, this option will update the max line for all the text views in the Snakbar view (which tbh I do not think it matters)

add this as extension

private fun <T> Sequence<T>.updateMaxLine(maxLine : Int) {
    for (view in this) {
        if (view is TextView) {
            view.maxLines = maxLine
        }
    }
}

Juliettejulina

Answer 20

Snackbar height adjustment:

val sMsg = "Msg\n\n"
val sOk = getString(R.string.ok)
val sMoreLines = StringBuilder()
for (iCtr in 1..6) {
    sMoreLines.append("\n")                 
}
Snackbar
.make(
    this.requireActivity().findViewById(android.R.id.content),
    sMsg,
    Snackbar.LENGTH_INDEFINITE)        
.setAction("$sMoreLines$sOk\n$sMoreLines") {
    // ...
}
.show()

Donell