Composable Text

In Compose, you put words on screen with the Text composable. It is the simplest building block you will use in almost every screen.

Give Text a string and it renders instantly. No XML, no findViewById, just a function call describing what you want shown.

Text is a composable function, not a class you inflate. You call it inside other composables, exactly like calling any Kotlin function. 🙂

You write Text inside a composable function such as your screen. Compose reads your code top to bottom and draws each element it finds.

With no extra arguments, Text uses sensible defaults from your theme: a readable size, the on-surface color, and the standard font.

For real apps, pull text from stringResource instead of hardcoding. This keeps your app translatable into every language you ship.

Because it is plain Kotlin, you can build the string from variables and templates before passing it to Text. Logic and UI live together.

Need several lines? Just call Text multiple times. Each call is one independent element you can style on its own later.

Long content can be capped with maxLines so a label never grows taller than you expect. It simply stops drawing extra lines.

When the string you pass changes, Text redraws automatically. You never call an update method; Compose tracks the value for you.

That is the whole idea: describe the text you want, and Compose paints it. Everything fancier is just extra arguments on this same call.

Which line correctly shows a greeting in Compose?

You met Text, the core composable for showing words. Pass it a string, lean on theme defaults, and it redraws whenever the value changes. 🎉