Add toggle buttons

Try the Compose way
Jetpack Compose is the recommended UI toolkit for Android. Learn how to add components in Compose.
Switch →

If you're using a View-based layout, there are three main choices for implementing toggles. We recommend using the SwitchMaterial component from the Material Components library:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="16dp">

    <com.google.android.material.switchmaterial.SwitchMaterial
        android:id="@+id/material_switch"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/material_switch"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Legacy apps might still use the older SwitchCompat AppCompat component, as shown in the following example:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="16dp">

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.SwitchCompat
        android:id="@+id/switchcompat"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/switchcompat"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

The following example shows AppCompatToggleButton, which is another legacy component that has a noticeably different UI:

<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="16dp">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/toggle_button_label"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toStartOf="@id/toggle"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_chainStyle="packed"
        app:layout_constraintBaseline_toBaselineOf="@id/toggle"
        android:text="@string/toggle_button" />

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatToggleButton
        android:id="@+id/toggle"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@id/toggle_button_label"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"/>

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

These three components offer the same behavior but look different. The differences between the SwitchMaterial and SwitchCompat are subtle, but AppCompatToggleButton is noticeably different:

The SwitchMaterial, SwitchCompat, and AppCompatToggleButton Controls

Figure 1. Three toggle button types.

Handle state changes

SwitchMaterial, SwitchCompat, and AppCompatToggleButton are all subclasses of CompoundButton, which gives them a common mechanism for handling checked state changes. You implement an instance of CompoundButton.OnCheckedChangeListener and add it to the button, as shown in the following example:

Kotlin

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        val binding: SwitchLayoutBinding = SwitchLayoutBinding.inflate(layoutInflater)
        setContentView(binding.root)

        binding.materialSwitch.setOnCheckedChangeListener { _, isChecked ->
            if (isChecked) {
                // The switch is checked.
            } else {
                // The switch isn't checked.
            }
        }
    }
}

Java

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        SwitchLayoutBinding binding = SwitchLayoutBinding.inflate(getLayoutInflater());
        setContentView(binding.getRoot());

        binding.materialSwitch.setOnCheckedChangeListener((buttonView, isChecked) -> {
            if (isChecked) {
                // The switch is checked.
            } else {
                // The switch isn't checked.
            }
        });
    }
}

CompoundButton.OnCheckedChangeListener is a single abstract method interface (or SAM interface), so you can implement it as a lambda. The lambda is called whenever the checked state changes, and the value of the isChecked boolean that is passed to the lambda indicates the new checked state.