How to animate RecyclerView items when they appear

EDIT :

According to the ItemAnimator documentation :

This class defines the animations that take place on items as changes are made to the adapter.

So unless you add your items one by one to your RecyclerView and refresh the view at each iteration, I don't think ItemAnimator is the solution to your need.

Here is how you can animate the RecyclerView items when they appear using a CustomAdapter :

public class CustomAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<CustomAdapter.ViewHolder>
{
    private Context context;

    // The items to display in your RecyclerView
    private ArrayList<String> items;
    // Allows to remember the last item shown on screen
    private int lastPosition = -1;

    public static class ViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder
    {
        TextView text;
        // You need to retrieve the container (ie the root ViewGroup from your custom_item_layout)
        // It's the view that will be animated
        FrameLayout container;

        public ViewHolder(View itemView)
        {
            super(itemView);
            container = (FrameLayout) itemView.findViewById(R.id.item_layout_container);
            text = (TextView) itemView.findViewById(R.id.item_layout_text);
        }
    }

    public CustomAdapter(ArrayList<String> items, Context context)
    {
        this.items = items;
        this.context = context;
    }

    @Override
    public CustomAdapter.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType)
    {
        View v = LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.custom_item_layout, parent, false);
        return new ViewHolder(v);
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(ViewHolder holder, int position)
    {
        holder.text.setText(items.get(position));

        // Here you apply the animation when the view is bound
        setAnimation(holder.itemView, position);
    }

    /**
     * Here is the key method to apply the animation
     */
    private void setAnimation(View viewToAnimate, int position)
    {
        // If the bound view wasn't previously displayed on screen, it's animated
        if (position > lastPosition)
        {
            Animation animation = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(context, android.R.anim.slide_in_left);
            viewToAnimate.startAnimation(animation);
            lastPosition = position;
        }
    }
}

And your custom_item_layout would look like this :

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/item_layout_container"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/item_layout_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceListItemSmall"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:minHeight="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeightSmall"/>

</FrameLayout>

For more information about CustomAdapters and RecyclerView, refer to this training on the official documentation.

Problems on fast scroll

Using this method could cause problems with fast scrolling. The view could be reused while the animation is been happening. In order to avoid that is recommendable to clear the animation when is detached.

    @Override
    public void onViewDetachedFromWindow(final RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder)
    {
        ((CustomViewHolder)holder).clearAnimation();
    }

On CustomViewHolder:

    public void clearAnimation()
    {
        mRootLayout.clearAnimation();
    }

Old answer :

Give a look at Gabriele Mariotti's repo, I'm pretty sure you'll find what you need. He provides simple ItemAnimators for the RecyclerView, such as SlideInItemAnimator or SlideScaleItemAnimator.

Made Simple with XML only

Visit Gist Link

res/anim/layout_animation.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <layoutAnimation xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:animation="@anim/item_animation_fall_down"
        android:animationOrder="normal"
        android:delay="15%" />

res/anim/item_animation_fall_down.xml

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:duration="500">

    <translate
        android:fromYDelta="-20%"
        android:toYDelta="0"
        android:interpolator="@android:anim/decelerate_interpolator"
        />

    <alpha
        android:fromAlpha="0"
        android:toAlpha="1"
        android:interpolator="@android:anim/decelerate_interpolator"
        />

    <scale
        android:fromXScale="105%"
        android:fromYScale="105%"
        android:toXScale="100%"
        android:toYScale="100%"
        android:pivotX="50%"
        android:pivotY="50%"
        android:interpolator="@android:anim/decelerate_interpolator"
        />

</set>

Use in layouts and recylcerview like:

<androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView
    android:id="@+id/recycler_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layoutAnimation="@anim/layout_animation"
    app:layout_behavior="@string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior" />