Adding a colored background with text/icon under swiped row when using Android's RecyclerView

I was struggling to implement this feature as well, but you steered me in the right direction.

@Override
public void onChildDraw(Canvas c, RecyclerView recyclerView, RecyclerView.ViewHolder viewHolder, float dX, float dY, int actionState, boolean isCurrentlyActive) {
    if (actionState == ItemTouchHelper.ACTION_STATE_SWIPE) {
        // Get RecyclerView item from the ViewHolder
        View itemView = viewHolder.itemView;

        Paint p = new Paint();
        if (dX > 0) {
            /* Set your color for positive displacement */

            // Draw Rect with varying right side, equal to displacement dX
            c.drawRect((float) itemView.getLeft(), (float) itemView.getTop(), dX,
                    (float) itemView.getBottom(), p);
        } else {
            /* Set your color for negative displacement */

            // Draw Rect with varying left side, equal to the item's right side plus negative displacement dX
            c.drawRect((float) itemView.getRight() + dX, (float) itemView.getTop(),
                    (float) itemView.getRight(), (float) itemView.getBottom(), p);
        }

        super.onChildDraw(c, recyclerView, viewHolder, dX, dY, actionState, isCurrentlyActive);
    }
}

The accepted answer does a great job of coloring the background, but did not address drawing the icon.

This worked for me because it both set the background color and drew the icon, without the icon being stretched during the swipe, or leaving a gap between the previous and next items after the swipe.

public static final float ALPHA_FULL = 1.0f;

public void onChildDraw(Canvas c, RecyclerView recyclerView, RecyclerView.ViewHolder viewHolder, float dX, float dY, int actionState, boolean isCurrentlyActive) {
    if (actionState == ItemTouchHelper.ACTION_STATE_SWIPE) {
        // Get RecyclerView item from the ViewHolder
        View itemView = viewHolder.itemView;

        Paint p = new Paint();
        Bitmap icon;

        if (dX > 0) {
            /* Note, ApplicationManager is a helper class I created 
               myself to get a context outside an Activity class - 
               feel free to use your own method */

            icon = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(
                    ApplicationManager.getContext().getResources(), R.drawable.myleftdrawable);

            /* Set your color for positive displacement */
            p.setARGB(255, 255, 0, 0);

            // Draw Rect with varying right side, equal to displacement dX
            c.drawRect((float) itemView.getLeft(), (float) itemView.getTop(), dX,
                    (float) itemView.getBottom(), p);

            // Set the image icon for Right swipe
            c.drawBitmap(icon,
                    (float) itemView.getLeft() + convertDpToPx(16),
                    (float) itemView.getTop() + ((float) itemView.getBottom() - (float) itemView.getTop() - icon.getHeight())/2,
                    p);
        } else {
            icon = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(
                    ApplicationManager.getContext().getResources(), R.drawable.myrightdrawable);

            /* Set your color for negative displacement */
            p.setARGB(255, 0, 255, 0);

            // Draw Rect with varying left side, equal to the item's right side
            // plus negative displacement dX
            c.drawRect((float) itemView.getRight() + dX, (float) itemView.getTop(),
                    (float) itemView.getRight(), (float) itemView.getBottom(), p);

            //Set the image icon for Left swipe
            c.drawBitmap(icon,
                    (float) itemView.getRight() - convertDpToPx(16) - icon.getWidth(),
                    (float) itemView.getTop() + ((float) itemView.getBottom() - (float) itemView.getTop() - icon.getHeight())/2,
                    p);
        }

        // Fade out the view as it is swiped out of the parent's bounds
        final float alpha = ALPHA_FULL - Math.abs(dX) / (float) viewHolder.itemView.getWidth();
        viewHolder.itemView.setAlpha(alpha);
        viewHolder.itemView.setTranslationX(dX);

    } else {
        super.onChildDraw(c, recyclerView, viewHolder, dX, dY, actionState, isCurrentlyActive);
    }
}

private int convertDpToPx(int dp){
    return Math.round(dp * (getResources().getDisplayMetrics().xdpi / DisplayMetrics.DENSITY_DEFAULT));
}

I'm not sure how these solutions (by @Sanvywell, @HappyKatz and @user2410066) are working for you guys but in my case I needed another check in the onChildDraw method.

Looks like ItemTouchHelper keeps ViewHolders of removed rows in case they need to be restored. It's also calling onChildDraw for those VHs in addition to the VH being swiped. Not sure about memory management implications of this behavior but I needed an additional check in the start of onChildDraw to avoid drawing for "fantom" rows.

if (viewHolder.getAdapterPosition() == -1) {
    return;
}

BONUS PART:

I've also wanted to continue drawing as other rows animate to their new positions after a row is swipe deleted, and I couldn't do it within ItemTouchHelper and onChildDraw. In the end I had to add another item decorator to do it. It goes along these lines:

public void onDraw(Canvas c, RecyclerView parent, RecyclerView.State state) {
    if (parent.getItemAnimator().isRunning()) {
        // find first child with translationY > 0
        // draw from it's top to translationY whatever you want

        int top = 0;
        int bottom = 0;

        int childCount = parent.getLayoutManager().getChildCount();
        for (int i = 0; i < childCount; i++) {
            View child = parent.getLayoutManager().getChildAt(i);
            if (child.getTranslationY() != 0) {
                top = child.getTop();
                bottom = top + (int) child.getTranslationY();                    
                break;
            }
        }

        // draw whatever you want

        super.onDraw(c, parent, state);
    }
}

UPDATE: I wrote a blog post on recycler view swipe to delete feature. Someone might find it usefull. No 3rd party lib necessary.

blog post git repo