How to stop blinking on recycler view with architecture components paging library

Short answer: make sure to call the callback of PositionalDataSource<T>.loadInitial(@NonNull LoadInitialParams params, @NonNull LoadInitialCallback<T> callback) synchronously in loadInitial without wrapping it in some kind of asynchronous success handler.

Explanation:

Blinking can be caused by asynchronous loads in your initial load i.e. in PositionalDataSource<T>.loadInitial(@NonNull LoadInitialParams params, @NonNull LoadInitialCallback<T> callback).

The following will happen when you do so:

Your data source gets invalidated which leads to the creation of a new PagedList (when created with LivePagedListBuilder). This newly created paged list will be passed to your adapter but it is still empty because you didn't call the callback directly in your initial load. This will lead to an empty list for as long as it takes for your callback to be called. This ultimately results in a flicker effect.

PagedListAdapterHelper deprecated in Paging Component so we should use AsyncPagedListDiffer instead of it.

Code example:

    import android.arch.paging.AsyncPagedListDiffer;    import android.arch.paging.PagedList;    import android.arch.paging.PagedListAdapter;    import android.support.annotation.NonNull;    import android.support.v7.util.DiffUtil;    import android.view.LayoutInflater;    import android.view.ViewGroup;    public class PagedItemsArrayAdapter extends PagedListAdapter<Item, MyViewHolder> {            private final AsyncPagedListDiffer<Item> mDiffer;            public PagedItemsArrayAdapter() {                super(DIFF_CALLBACK);                mDiffer = new AsyncPagedListDiffer<>(this, DIFF_CALLBACK);                setHasStableIds(true);            }            @Override            public long getItemId(int position) {               Item item = mDiffer.getItem(position);               return item.id;            }            @Override            public int getItemCount() {                return mDiffer.getItemCount();            }            @Override            public void submitList(PagedList<Item> pagedList) {                pagedList.addWeakCallback(pagedList.snapshot(), new PagedList.Callback() {                    @Override                    public void onChanged(int position, int count) {                    }                    @Override                    public void onInserted(int position, int count) {                        mDiffer.submitList(pagedList);                    }                    @Override                    public void onRemoved(int position, int count) {                    }                });            }            @Override            public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull MyViewHolder viewHolder, int position) {                   Item item = mDiffer.getItem(position);                   viewHolder.onBind(item);             }            private static DiffUtil.ItemCallback<Item> DIFF_CALLBACK = new DiffUtil.ItemCallback<Item>() {                @Override                public boolean areItemsTheSame(@NonNull Item oldItem, @NonNull Item newItem) {                    return oldItem.getId() == newItem.getId();                }                @Override                public boolean areContentsTheSame(@NonNull Item oldItem, @NonNull Item newItem) {                    return oldItem.equals(newItem);                }            };

You can disable the item animations.

mRecyclerView.setItemAnimator(null);