What is the difference between a layout and a container in Android?

Question

In android studio, in design section, Layouts and Containers are categorized separately.

What is the fundamental difference between them?

Answer 1

Layouts all directly extend ViewGroup. The Layout suffix is part of the class name for classes in this group, e.g. LinearLayout, RelativeLayout.

Containers is a bucket description for Views that wrap dynamic content. They are more specialized than Layouts and can but don't have to extend a Layout. Some extend ViewGroup indirectly e.g ListView, some don't e.g. VideoView. The Container label is used in Android Studio but is not part of the class name.