A couple of common usage patterns on Android is to use the SwipeRefreshLayout to enable pull-to-refresh, and also to have a custom “empty” view that displays when there are no items in the list. Unfortunately trying to combine these two patterns often results in problems. Reference--> http://innodroid.com/blog/post/recycler-empty-swipe-refresh

SwipeRefreshLayout, RecyclerView, and EmptyView

<SwipeRefreshLayoutWithEmpty ...>
  <FrameLayout ...>
    <TextView android:text="List is Empty" ...>
    <RecyclerView ...>
  </FrameLayout>
</SwipeRefreshLayoutWithEmpty>

SwipeRefreshLayoutWithEmpty

public class SwipeRefreshLayoutWithEmpty extends SwipeRefreshLayout {
    private ViewGroup container;

    public SwipeRefreshLayoutWithEmpty(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public SwipeRefreshLayoutWithEmpty(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean canChildScrollUp() {
        // The swipe refresh layout has 2 children; the circle refresh indicator
        // and the view container. The container is needed here
        ViewGroup container = getContainer();
        if (container == null) {
            return false;
        }

        // The container has 2 children; the empty view and the scrollable view.
        if (container.getChildCount() != 2) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Container must have an empty view and content view");
        }

        // Use whichever one is visible and test that it can scroll
        View view = container.getChildAt(0);
        if (view.getVisibility() != View.VISIBLE) {
            view = container.getChildAt(1);
        }

        return ViewCompat.canScrollVertically(view, -1);
    }

    private ViewGroup getContainer() {
        // Cache this view
        if (container != null) {
            return container;
        }

        // The container may not be the first view. Need to iterate to find it
        for (int i=0; i<getChildCount(); i++) {
            if (getChildAt(i) instanceof ViewGroup) {
                container = (ViewGroup) getChildAt(i);
                break;
            }
        }

        if (container == null) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Container view not found");
        }

        return container;
    }
}