SurfaceView

SurfaceView provides a dedicated Android drawing surface. It is useful for content such as camera previews, video output, or custom rendering that benefits from a separate surface.

Use it when…

Use SurfaceView when the rendered content should live on a dedicated surface and does not need to behave exactly like ordinary composited UI.

If transforms and view-hierarchy composition matter more than the dedicated-surface model, consider TextureView.

How it behaves

A SurfaceView is backed by a separate surface layer. Normal inherited view APIs still control the wrapper's size and placement, while the rendered surface has its own lifecycle and rendering concerns.

Surface-holder callbacks are not exposed on this type yet.

Examples

Reserve a preview area

SurfaceView()
    .width(.matchParent)
    .height(220)

Place controls over a surface

FrameLayout {
    SurfaceView()
        .width(.matchParent)
        .height(220)

    Button("Capture")
        .gravityInParent([.bottom, .end])
        .margin(16)
}

Initializers

SurfaceView uses the inherited view initializer:

SurfaceView()
SurfaceView(id: 1001)