square/picasso

Analysis updated 2026-06-21

★ 18,833KotlinAudience · developerComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Picasso))
    What It Does
      Downloads images
      Manages memory cache
      Handles errors
    Status
      Now deprecated
      Migrate to Coil
      Existing versions work
    Integration
      One line of code
      Gradle install
      Android API 21+
    Audience
      Android developers
      Legacy app maintainers

mindmap root((Picasso)) What It Does Downloads images Manages memory cache Handles errors Status Now deprecated Migrate to Coil Existing versions work Integration One line of code Gradle install Android API 21+ Audience Android developers Legacy app maintainers

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Display user avatars loaded from a URL in an Android RecyclerView list with automatic memory and disk caching.

USE CASE 2

Load product images from a remote API into an Android e-commerce app without managing background threads yourself.

USE CASE 3

Show news article thumbnails in an Android app with automatic caching for smooth, fast scrolling.

What is it built with?

KotlinJavaAndroid

How does it compare?

	square/picasso	jetbrains/compose-multiplatform	google/flexbox-layout
Stars	18,833	19,050	18,337
Language	Kotlin	Kotlin	Kotlin
Setup difficulty	easy	moderate	easy
Complexity	1/5	3/5	2/5
Audience	developer	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Deprecated, no new releases planned, the Picasso team recommends migrating to Coil for new Android projects.

Use freely in any project including commercial apps, as long as you keep the Apache 2.0 license notice.

In plain English

Picasso is an Android library from Square that handles downloading images from the internet and caching them so they display quickly and efficiently in your app. Loading remote images in Android is surprisingly complex, you need to manage background threads, memory, disk cache, and error states, and Picasso handles all of that automatically. However, the library is now officially deprecated and the authors recommend migrating to Coil, especially for projects that use Compose UI. You would have used Picasso when building an Android app that displays images loaded from URLs, such as user avatars, product photos, or news thumbnails. It requires at minimum Java 8 and Android API level 21. It is available via Gradle as com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.8 and is licensed under Apache License 2.0. Existing versions continue to work, but no new releases are planned.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Show me how to use Picasso to load an image URL into an ImageView in Android with a placeholder while loading and an error image if it fails.

Prompt 2

How do I migrate my Android app from Picasso to Coil since Picasso is now deprecated and no longer getting updates?

Prompt 3

What's the Gradle dependency to add Picasso 2.8 to my Android project and what minimum API level does it require?

Prompt 4

How do I use Picasso to load a circular profile picture with a default avatar placeholder in my Android app?

Frequently asked questions

What is picasso?

A now-deprecated Android library from Square that downloads, caches, and displays remote images in your app with a single line of code, but the team now recommends migrating to Coil for new projects.

What language is picasso written in?

Mainly Kotlin. The stack also includes Kotlin, Java, Android.

What license does picasso use?

Use freely in any project including commercial apps, as long as you keep the Apache 2.0 license notice.

How hard is picasso to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is picasso for?

Mainly developer.

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