The Android drag-and-drop framework lets you add interactive drag-and-drop
capabilities to your app. With drag and drop, users can copy or move text,
images, objects, and any content that can be represented by a URI, from one
View to another within an app, or between apps
in multi-window mode.
Figure 1. Drag and drop within an app.
Figure 2. Drag and drop between apps.
The framework includes a drag event class, drag listeners, and helper classes
and methods. Although primarily designed to enable the transfer of data, you can
use the framework for other UI actions. For example, you can create an app that
mixes colors when the user drags a color icon over another icon. However, the
rest of document describes the drag-and-drop framework in the context of data
transfer.
Overview
There are a few elements involved in the drag process.
Drag source: The start point view of drag-and-drop process.
Drop target: A view that can accept the drag data.
Drag shadow:
A drag shadow is a representation
of the data being dragged, it's visible to users.
Drag events:
As the user moves the drag shadow over the
app's layout, the system sends drag events to the drag event listeners and
callback methods associated with the View objects in the layout.
A drag-and-drop operation starts when the user makes a UI gesture that your app
recognizes as a signal to start dragging data. In
response, the app notifies the system that a drag-and-drop operation is
starting. The system calls back to your
app to get a drag shadow. and show it to users during drag-and-drop process.
As the user moves the drag shadow over the app's layout, the system sends drag
events to the drag event listeners and callback methods
associated with the View objects in the layout. If the user releases the drag
shadow over a drop target, the system sends the data to it. The drag-and-drop
operation ends when the user releases the drag shadow, whether or not the drag
shadow is over a drop target.
Drag and Drop Samples which contains various ways to implement drag and drop along with accepting rich media.
Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License. Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2024-07-16 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2024-07-16 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Enable drag and drop\n\nTry the Compose way \nJetpack Compose is the recommended UI toolkit for Android. Learn how to use drag and drop in Compose. \n[Drag and drop →](/develop/ui/compose/touch-input/user-interactions/drag-and-drop) \n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n| **Note:** See the improved method of implementing drag and drop in [Receive rich\n| content](/develop/ui/views/receive-rich-content) for a better UX and improved maintainability of your code.\n\nThe Android drag-and-drop framework lets you add interactive drag-and-drop\ncapabilities to your app. With drag and drop, users can copy or move text,\nimages, objects, and any content that can be represented by a URI, from one\n[`View`](/reference/android/view/View) to another within an app, or between apps\nin [multi-window mode](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/multi-window#DragPermissionsMultiWindow).\n\n|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|\n| | |\n| **Figure 1.** Drag and drop within an app. | **Figure 2.** Drag and drop between apps. |\n\nThe framework includes a drag event class, drag listeners, and helper classes\nand methods. Although primarily designed to enable the transfer of data, you can\nuse the framework for other UI actions. For example, you can create an app that\nmixes colors when the user drags a color icon over another icon. However, the\nrest of document describes the drag-and-drop framework in the context of data\ntransfer.\n\nOverview\n--------\n\nThere are a few elements involved in the drag process.\n\n1. Drag source: The start point view of drag-and-drop process.\n\n2. Drop target: A view that can accept the drag data.\n\n3. [Drag shadow](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/concepts#AboutDragShadowBuilder):\n A *drag shadow* is a representation\n of the data being dragged, it's visible to users.\n\n4. [Drag events](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/concepts#AboutDragEvent):\n As the user moves the drag shadow over the\n app's layout, the system sends drag events to the drag event listeners and\n callback methods associated with the `View` objects in the layout.\n\nA drag-and-drop operation starts when the user makes a UI gesture that your app\nrecognizes as a signal to start dragging data. In\nresponse, the app notifies the system that a drag-and-drop operation is\nstarting. The system calls back to your\napp to get a *drag shadow*. and show it to users during drag-and-drop process.\n\nAs the user moves the drag shadow over the app's layout, the system sends drag\nevents to the [drag event listeners and callback methods](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/concepts#AboutDragListeners)\nassociated with the `View` objects in the layout. If the user releases the drag\nshadow over a drop target, the system sends the data to it. The drag-and-drop\noperation ends when the user releases the drag shadow, whether or not the drag\nshadow is over a drop target.\n\nTopics\n------\n\n[Key Concepts](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/concepts)\n: Understand the drag-and-drop process.\n\n[DropHelper for simplified drag and drop](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/drophelper)\n: Learn how to implement drag and drop with `DropHelper`.\n\n[Implement drag and drop with views](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/view)\n: Alternatively, implement drag and drop with Android views, this allows\n developers to have more control of the details.\n\n[Drag and drop in multi-window mode](/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/drag-drop/multi-window)\n: Support drag and drop in multi-window mode, allow objects to move across\n different applications.\n\nAdditional resources\n--------------------\n\n- [Codelab for Drag and Drop](/codelabs/codelab-dnd-views) using views\n- [Drag \\& drop for seamless multitasking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOm76wSfkbU) video\n- [Drag and Drop Samples](https://github.com/android/platform-samples/tree/main/samples/user-interface/draganddrop) which contains various ways to implement drag and drop along with accepting rich media."]]
