Cyclic property animator in Native View subclass (e.g. Flashing ImageView)

We show a method by which native View behavior can be overridden and a property changed in a cyclic sequence. For demonstration, we subclass an ImageView and set its alpha property to cycle between two defined values continuously

First, we define the subclass programmatically

// required constructor signature
class FlashingImageView(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet?, defStyleAttr: Int): ImageView(context, attrs, defStyleAttr) {

    // define the upper and lower limits to the alpha property
    enum class Alphas(val value: Float) {
        upper(0.25f),
        lower(0.0f)
    }

    // time duration between upper and lower limits 
    val duration: Long = 700L
    
    // required constructor signatures
    constructor(context: Context) : this(context, null)

    // post a runnable which will start the flashing sequence when this
    // ImageView is ready
    constructor(context: Context, attrs: AttributeSet?) : this(context, attrs, 0) {
        this.post(object: Runnable {
            override fun run() {
                [e-mail]()
            }
        })
    }

    // define the starting property value and start the flashing sequence
    fun startAnimation() {
        this.setAlpha(Alphas.lower.value)
        this.step()
    }

    // this runnable restarts each step in the flashing sequence
    val runnable = object: Runnable {
        override fun run() {
            [e-mail]()
        }
    }

    // swap the target property value for the animation and start 
    // an animation that will call our runnable on completion 
    fun step() {
        val newAlpha = if(this.alpha.equals(Alphas.lower.value))
            Alphas.upper.value
        else
            Alphas.lower.value

        this.animate()
                .alpha(newAlpha)
                .setDuration(duration)
                .withEndAction(runnable)
    }
}

This subclass can be utilized in XML layout as follows:

<path.to.FlashingImageView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:src="@mipmap/image"
/>

Note: it is recommended to switch off this type of continuous animation when it is not needed, not only to save CPU, also to avoid errors if attempting to use the Layout Inspector in Android Studio.