Showing balloon with bottomsheetfragment visible

[chaimgross]

I have a problem, I am listening to a flow events to show balloons on screen throughout app. Problem arises when there is a bottomsheet fragment being shown on screen when the balloon is shown it is greyed out in the background. I am using findViewById(android.R.id.content) for my anchor view, and I do not have an instance of the bottomsheet to get its rootview.
I would like for balloon to be shown above all possible shown dialogs/bottomsheets on screen.

[faraz152]

This is a window z-order problem. Balloon uses a PopupWindow anchored to the View you pass — which attaches it to the activity's window. BottomSheetDialog creates its own separate window with a higher z-order, so anything anchored to the activity's window (including your balloon) appears beneath it.

Using activity.window.decorView instead of android.R.id.content won't help because they're still the same activity window.

Solution 1 — Show the balloon only after the BottomSheet is dismissed (safest)

If you're listening to a Flow, buffer the balloon request and hold it until no overlay is blocking:

// In your ViewModel or wherever you control the flow
private val pendingBalloon = MutableStateFlow<BalloonEvent?>(null)

// When BottomSheet closes, consume and show the balloon
fun onBottomSheetDismissed() {
    pendingBalloon.value?.let { event ->
        showBalloon(event)
        pendingBalloon.value = null
    }
}

Register a BottomSheetBehavior.BottomSheetCallback or a DialogInterface.OnDismissListener on the sheet to trigger this.

Solution 2 — Anchor the balloon to a View inside the BottomSheet

If you can pass a reference to any View inside the BottomSheet as the anchor, the balloon's PopupWindow attaches to the BottomSheet's window and appears above it:

// In your BottomSheetFragment
val anchorView = view.findViewById<View>(R.id.some_view)
eventBus.post(ShowBalloonEvent(anchorView)) // pass to your flow listener

Solution 3 — Use WindowManager overlay (API 26+, requires permission)

For a truly always-on-top balloon you'd need TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY, but that requires SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission and significant extra setup — not recommended unless it's a core product requirement.

Recommended approach

Solution 1 (delay until BottomSheet dismisses) is the most user-friendly — a balloon appearing while a modal is open is unexpected UX anyway. Solution 2 is right if the balloon is contextually tied to something inside the sheet.