# The lesser known world of spans

DevFeed: [The lesser known world of spans](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-lesser-known-world-of-spans-29032.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://saket.me/lesser-known-world-of-spans/>)

Author: Saket Narayan

Published: 2017-11-05T14:52:27Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Saket Narayan](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/saket-narayan.md>)

Topics: [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [Framework](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/framework.md>)

Tags: [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [deep-dive](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/deep-dive.md>), [framework](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/framework.md>), [public-speaking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/public-speaking.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how Android spans power features such as cursor display, hyperlinks, text highlighting, styling, indentation, URL clicks, text-change listeners, spelling suggestions, and images. It introduces a talk covering built-in and custom spans.

## Source excerpt

Do you know what's common between the blinking cursor, hyperlinks and text highlighting in TextViews? They're all implemented using spans. Spans are tiny objects that Android uses heavily across the framework. If you've worked with text styling such as bold or italics, then you're already familiar with the basic usages of spans. But they are [...] The post The lesser known world of spans appeared first on Saket Narayan.