How to hide a button programmatically?

You can use the following code:

playButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.play);
playButton.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
playButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {
        //when play is clicked show stop button and hide play button
        playButton.setVisibility(View.GONE);
        stopButton.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    }
});

Try the below code -

playButton.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);

or -

playButton.setVisibility(View.GONE);

show it again with -

playButton.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);