Why WhatsApp Uses ListView

Hadi Tok, a software engineer at WhatsApp, explains why the app continues to use ListView for its chat screen, despite the introduction of RecyclerView. The talk compares ListView and RecyclerView, highlighting their differences in performance, view recycling, layout management, and animations. Tok discusses how WhatsApp leverages CursorAdapters and custom caching to optimize ListView performance, and analyzes the potential benefits and significant costs of migrating to RecyclerView at WhatsApp's scale. The decision is framed as a case study in managing technical debt and prioritizing user value.