explaingit

afollestad/material-dialogs

★ 19,594KotlinAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5DormantLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Kotlin library for Android that creates polished, Material Design dialog boxes, pop-ups for questions, warnings, and input, without building from scratch.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Material Dialogs))
    What it does
      Pop-up dialogs
      Material Design
      Android apps
    Core features
      Text input
      File chooser
      Color picker
    More features
      Date picker
      Time picker
      Bottom sheets
    Tech stack
      Kotlin
      Android
      Gradle
    Use cases
      Confirmation prompts
      User input forms
      Settings screens

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Show a confirmation dialog asking 'Are you sure?' before deleting data in your Android app.

USE CASE 2

Add a text input dialog to collect a user's name or search query without building a custom form.

USE CASE 3

Display a date picker so users can select their birthday or appointment time from a calendar.

USE CASE 4

Create a file browser dialog so users can pick a photo or document from their phone's storage.

Tech stack

KotlinAndroidGradle

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Apache 2.0 license allows free use for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you include a copy of the license and state any changes made.

In plain English

Material Dialogs is a Kotlin library for Android that makes it easy to show polished pop-up dialog boxes in mobile apps. A "dialog" is the small window that appears over your app to ask a question, show a warning, or collect input, like the "Are you sure you want to delete this?" prompt that appears in many apps. Android provides basic dialogs out of the box, but Material Dialogs replaces them with a more attractive, flexible version that follows Google's Material Design guidelines. The library is split into focused modules so you only include what you need. The core module handles standard dialogs with titles, messages, and buttons. The input module adds a text field so the user can type an answer. The files module provides a ready-made file and folder chooser. The color module adds a color picker. The datetime module gives you date, time, and combined date-time pickers. The bottom sheets module transforms any dialog into a sheet that slides up from the bottom of the screen, a common pattern in modern mobile apps. There is also a lifecycle module that automatically dismisses dialogs when the hosting screen is destroyed, preventing common crash bugs. An Android developer would add Material Dialogs when they want visually consistent, easy-to-configure pop-ups without building them from scratch. The library is installed via Gradle (Android's build system) and is written entirely in Kotlin, meaning it is not compatible with older Java-only projects; version 0.9.6.0 is the last Java-compatible release.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I add a simple yes/no confirmation dialog to my Android app using Material Dialogs?
Prompt 2
Show me how to create a text input dialog that captures a user's name and validates it before saving.
Prompt 3
How do I integrate the Material Dialogs color picker module into my Android project?
Prompt 4
What's the best way to use Material Dialogs with lifecycle management to prevent crashes when the screen closes?
Prompt 5
How do I add a bottom sheet dialog that slides up from the bottom of the screen in Material Dialogs?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.