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Android Android Lists and Adapters (2015) Lists with RecyclerViews Using a Layout Manager

When is implementing the RecyclerView absolutely necessary?

I am making an app which has about 100 list items. I was wondering how much would the performance of the app would be hindered if I do not use RecyclerView?

Thanks for your views!

2 Answers

Timothy Retz
Timothy Retz
6,576 Points

As far as I can tell, a RecyclerView is not ever REQUIRED, but it's the direction the Android dev team wants people to go. So it's probably faster on Android 5.0+, and slower than the ListView solution on older versions. (Since you have to use the support library on older versions when implementing a RecyclerView).

So the short answer from a newb like me is: It depends on which version of Android you're targeting. (And which version is actually running the app, not which you're actually supporting.)

Ohh thats a great answer. It makes sense. Thanks,