ShowcaseView

ShowcaseView is an Android library (now archived) that lets app developers draw an attention-grabbing overlay on top of their app to highlight a specific button, menu item, or area of the interface. The overlay dims everything except the target, drawing the user's eye toward a particular feature. It is the kind of UI pattern you have likely seen when an app first opens and says something like "Tap here to get started" with a circle spotlighting the relevant button.

To add the overlay, you use a builder pattern in your Java code: specify which element on the screen to target, provide a short title and description, and optionally configure whether tapping outside the overlay dismisses it. The library handles the drawing, animation, and layout positioning so you do not need to build those pieces yourself.

ShowcaseView supports three visual styles: Holo (the older Android look), a newer flat style, and Material (following Google's Material Design guidelines). The style can be customized further using Android's standard XML styling system. A sample app is available on the Google Play Store to see the library in action before adding it to your own project.

The library was used in production by apps from Google, the BBC, and The Guardian, among others. Installation via Gradle is a single dependency line in your project's build file.

The project has been archived and has not been updated since around 2014. It targets Android API level 11 and above, which covers very old Android versions. A legacy branch with more features exists but is unsupported and must be compiled manually. For new Android projects, more actively maintained alternatives are likely a better fit.