Apply Material Design Touch Ripple to ImageButton?

You can just add a background to your ImageButton like this :

<ImageButton
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:src="@android:drawable/btn_dialog"
    android:background="?android:attr/selectableItemBackground" />

I got good answers from i.shadrin (here) and Nicolars (here).

The difference between their answers is that ?attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless can give you an android.view.InflateException, so the ?android:attr/selectableItemBackground is the solution.

FWIW, I do not know why the exception happens, because the first answer worked fine in all my old projects, but in my recent project not (maybe because the app theme = android:Theme.Material?).

The strange thing that was happening is that though the ripple effect was shown it was out-bounding the ImageButton, so the solution is:

  • To use the android:foreground="?android:attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless" instead of android:background="?android:attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless"

Hope it help you if you are facing the same.


For even better result:

<ImageButton
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:src="@android:drawable/ic_button"
    android:background="?attr/selectableItemBackgroundBorderless"
/>