How to set button click effect in Android?

This can be achieved by creating a drawable xml file containing a list of states for the button. So for example if you create a new xml file called "button.xml" with the following code:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_focused="true" android:state_pressed="false" android:drawable="@drawable/YOURIMAGE" />
    <item android:state_focused="true" android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/gradient" />
    <item android:state_focused="false" android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/gradient" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/YOURIMAGE" />
</selector>

To keep the background image with a darkened appearance on press, create a second xml file and call it gradient.xml with the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item>
        <bitmap android:src="@drawable/YOURIMAGE"/>
    </item>
    <item>
        <shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
            <gradient android:angle="90" android:startColor="#880f0f10" android:centerColor="#880d0d0f" android:endColor="#885d5d5e"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

In the xml of your button set the background to be the button xml e.g.

android:background="@drawable/button"

Hope this helps!

Edit: Changed the above code to show an image (YOURIMAGE) in the button as opposed to a block colour.

It is simpler when you have a lot of image buttons, and you don't want to write xml-s for every button.

Kotlin Version:

fun buttonEffect(button: View) {
    button.setOnTouchListener { v, event ->
        when (event.action) {
            MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN -> {
                v.background.setColorFilter(-0x1f0b8adf, PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_ATOP)
                v.invalidate()
            }
            MotionEvent.ACTION_UP -> {
                v.background.clearColorFilter()
                v.invalidate()
            }
        }
        false
    }
}

Java Version:

public static void buttonEffect(View button){
    button.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() {

        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            switch (event.getAction()) {
                case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN: {
                    v.getBackground().setColorFilter(0xe0f47521,PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_ATOP);
                    v.invalidate();
                    break;
                }
                case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP: {
                    v.getBackground().clearColorFilter();
                    v.invalidate();
                    break;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
    });
}