Best way to show a loading/progress indicator?

Use ProgressDialog

ProgressDialog.show(Context context, CharSequence title, CharSequence message);

However this is considered as an anti pattern today (2013): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEGWcMTxs3I

ProgressDialog is deprecated from Android Oreo. Use ProgressBar instead

ProgressDialog progress = new ProgressDialog(this);
progress.setTitle("Loading");
progress.setMessage("Wait while loading...");
progress.setCancelable(false); // disable dismiss by tapping outside of the dialog
progress.show();
// To dismiss the dialog
progress.dismiss();

OR

ProgressDialog.show(this, "Loading", "Wait while loading...");

Read more here.

By the way, Spinner has a different meaning in Android. (It's like the select dropdown in HTML)

ProgressDialog has become deprecated since API Level 26 https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ProgressDialog.html

I include a ProgressBar in my layout

   <ProgressBar
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:id="@+id/progressBar_cyclic"
        android:visibility="gone"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:minHeight="40dp"
        android:minWidth="40dp" />

and change its visibility to .GONE | .VISIBLE depending on the use case.

    progressBar_cyclic.visibility = View.VISIBLE