Android Application Development Cookbook - Second Edition

Displaying a progress dialog

The ProgressDialog has been available since API 1, and is widely used. As we'll demonstrate in this recipe, it's simple to use, but keep this statement in mind (from the Android Dialog Guidelines site):

Avoid ProgressDialog

Android includes another dialog class called ProgressDialog that shows a dialog with a progress bar. However, if you need to indicate loading or indeterminate progress, you should instead follow the design guidelines for Progress & Activity and use a ProgressBar in your layout.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/dialogs.html

This message doesn't mean the ProgressDialog is deprecated or is bad code. It's suggesting that the use of the ProgressDialog should be avoided, since the user cannot ...