Flow layouts in Compose

FlowRow and FlowColumn are composables that are similar to Row and Column, but differ in that items flow into the next line when the container runs out of space. This creates multiple rows or columns. The number of items in a line can also be controlled by setting maxItemsInEachRow or maxItemsInEachColumn. You can often use FlowRow and FlowColumn to build responsive layouts— content will not be cut off if items are too large for one dimension, and using a combination of maxItemsInEach* with Modifier.weight(weight) can help build layouts that fill/expand the width of a row or column when needed.

The typical example is for a chip or filtering UI:

Basic usage

To use FlowRow or FlowColumn, create these composables and place the items inside it that should follow the standard flow:

@Composable
private fun FlowRowSimpleUsageExample() {
    FlowRow(modifier = Modifier.padding(8.dp)) {
        ChipItem("Price: High to Low")
        ChipItem("Avg rating: 4+")
        ChipItem("Free breakfast")
        ChipItem("Free cancellation")
        ChipItem("£50 pn")
    }
}
FlowLayoutSnippets.kt

This snippet results in the UI shown above, with items automatically flowing to the next row when there is no more space in the first row.

Features of flow layout

Flow layouts have the following features and properties that you can use to create different layouts in your app.

Main axis arrangement: horizontal or vertical arrangement

The main axis is the axis on which items are laid out (for example, in FlowRow, items are arranged horizontally). The horizontalArrangement parameter in FlowRow controls the way free space is distributed between items.

The following table shows examples of setting horizontalArrangement on items for FlowRow:

Horizontal arrangement set on FlowRow	Result
Arrangement.Start (Default)
Arrangement.SpaceBetween
Arrangement.Center
Arrangement.End
Arrangement.SpaceAround
Arrangement.spacedBy(8.dp)

For FlowColumn, similar options are available with verticalArrangement, with the default of Arrangement.Top.

Cross axis arrangement

The cross axis is the axis in the opposite direction to the main axis. For example, in FlowRow, this is the vertical axis. To change how the overall contents inside the container are arranged in the cross axis, use verticalArrangement for FlowRow, and horizontalArrangement for FlowColumn.

For FlowRow, the following table shows examples of setting different verticalArrangement on the items:

Vertical arrangement set on FlowRow	Result
Arrangement.Top (Default)
Arrangement.Bottom
Arrangement.Center

For FlowColumn, similar options are available with horizontalArrangement. The default cross axis arrangement is Arrangement.Start.

Individual item alignment

You may want to position individual items within the row with different alignments. This is different from verticalArrangement and horizontalArrangement as it aligns items within the current line. You can apply this with Modifier.align().

For example, when items in a FlowRow are different heights, the row takes the height of the biggest item and applies Modifier.align(alignmentOption) to the items:

Vertical alignment set on FlowRow	Result
Alignment.Top (Default)
Alignment.Bottom
Alignment.CenterVertically

For FlowColumn, similar options are available. The default alignment is Alignment.Start.

Max items in row or column

The parameters maxItemsInEachRow or maxItemsInEachColumn define the maximum items in the main axis to allow in one line before wrapping to the next. The default is Int.MAX_INT, which allows as many items as possible, as long as their sizes allow them to fit into the line.

For example, setting a maxItemsInEachRow forces the initial layout to only have 3 items:

No max set	maxItemsInEachRow = 3

Item weights

Weight grows an item based on its factor and the available space on the line it was placed in. Importantly, there is a difference between FlowRow and Row with how weights are used to calculate the width of an item. For Rows, weight is based on all items in the Row. With FlowRow, weight is based on the items in the line that an item is placed in, not all the items in the FlowRow container.

For example, if you have 4 items that all fall on a line, each with different weights of 1f, 2f, 1f, and 3f, the total weight is 7f. The remaining space in a row or column will be divided by 7f. Then, each item width will be calculated using: weight * (remainingSpace / totalWeight).

You can use a combination of Modifier.weight and max items with FlowRow or FlowColumn to create a grid-like layout. This approach is useful for creating responsive layouts that adjust to the sizing of your device.

There are a few different examples of what you can achieve using weights. One example is a grid where items are equally sized, as shown below:

To create a grid of equal item sizes, you can do the following:

val rows = 3
val columns = 3
FlowRow(
    modifier = Modifier.padding(4.dp),
    horizontalArrangement = Arrangement.spacedBy(4.dp),
    maxItemsInEachRow = rows
) {
    val itemModifier = Modifier
        .padding(4.dp)
        .height(80.dp)
        .weight(1f)
        .clip(RoundedCornerShape(8.dp))
        .background(MaterialColors.Blue200)
    repeat(rows * columns) {
        Spacer(modifier = itemModifier)
    }
}
FlowLayoutSnippets.kt

Importantly, if you add another item and repeat it 10 times instead of 9, the last item takes up the entire last column, as the total weight for the whole row is 1f:

You can combine weights with other Modifiers such as Modifier.width(exactDpAmount), Modifier.aspectRatio(aspectRatio), or Modifier.fillMaxWidth(fraction). These modifiers all work in conjunction to allow for responsive sizing of items within a FlowRow (or FlowColumn).

You can also create an alternating grid of different item sizes, where two items take up half the width each, and one item takes up the full width of the next column:

You can achieve this with the following code:

FlowRow(
    modifier = Modifier.padding(4.dp),
    horizontalArrangement = Arrangement.spacedBy(4.dp),
    maxItemsInEachRow = 2
) {
    val itemModifier = Modifier
        .padding(4.dp)
        .height(80.dp)
        .clip(RoundedCornerShape(8.dp))
        .background(Color.Blue)
    repeat(6) { item ->
        // if the item is the third item, don't use weight modifier, but rather fillMaxWidth
        if ((item + 1) % 3 == 0) {
            Spacer(modifier = itemModifier.fillMaxWidth())
        } else {
            Spacer(modifier = itemModifier.weight(0.5f))
        }
    }
}
FlowLayoutSnippets.kt

Fractional sizing

Using Modifier.fillMaxWidth(fraction), you can specify the size of the container that an item should take up. This is different from how Modifier.fillMaxWidth(fraction) works when applied to Row or Column, in that Row/Column items take up a percentage of the remaining width, rather than the whole container's width.

For example, the following code produces different results when using FlowRow vs Row:

FlowRow(
    modifier = Modifier.padding(4.dp),
    horizontalArrangement = Arrangement.spacedBy(4.dp),
    maxItemsInEachRow = 3
) {
    val itemModifier = Modifier
        .clip(RoundedCornerShape(8.dp))
    Box(
        modifier = itemModifier
            .height(200.dp)
            .width(60.dp)
            .background(Color.Red)
    )
    Box(
        modifier = itemModifier
            .height(200.dp)
            .fillMaxWidth(0.7f)
            .background(Color.Blue)
    )
    Box(
        modifier = itemModifier
            .height(200.dp)
            .weight(1f)
            .background(Color.Magenta)
    )
}
FlowLayoutSnippets.kt

FlowRow: Middle item with 0.7 fraction of whole container width.
Row: Middle item taking up 0.7 percent of remaining Row width.

fillMaxColumnWidth() and fillMaxRowHeight()

Applying either Modifier.fillMaxColumnWidth() or Modifier.fillMaxRowHeight() to an item inside a FlowColumn or FlowRow ensures that items in the same column or row take up the same width or height as the biggest item in the column/row.

For example, this example uses FlowColumn to display the list of Android desserts. You can see the difference in each items widths when Modifier.fillMaxColumnWidth() is applied to the items versus when its not and the items wrap.

FlowColumn(
    Modifier
        .padding(20.dp)
        .fillMaxHeight()
        .fillMaxWidth(),
    horizontalArrangement = Arrangement.spacedBy(8.dp),
    verticalArrangement = Arrangement.spacedBy(8.dp),
    maxItemsInEachColumn = 5,
) {
    repeat(listDesserts.size) {
        Box(
            Modifier
                .fillMaxColumnWidth()
                .border(1.dp, Color.DarkGray, RoundedCornerShape(8.dp))
                .padding(8.dp)
        ) {

            Text(
                text = listDesserts[it],
                fontSize = 18.sp,
                modifier = Modifier.padding(3.dp)
            )
        }
    }
}
FlowLayoutSnippets.kt

Modifier.fillMaxColumnWidth() applied to each item
No width changes set (wrapping items)