Picker

A picker is the scrolling wheel of options that rolls one value into place, most familiar from setting an alarm time or choosing a date.

The surprising part is how it arrives. You tap a field that looks ready for typing, but no keyboard appears. A wheel rises instead, and you roll through the choices until one sits inside the selection band. A picker replaces typing with choosing from a controlled list. That is useful for dates and times, where the app already knows every valid answer.

Only the centered row is selected. The rows above and below fade and shrink around it, which makes a flat list feel like a physical wheel turning away from you. A good picker also lets you tap a nearby value instead of forcing every change through a long spin.

You'll hear wheel picker, scroll picker, date picker, and sometimes spin wheel. Older design systems also used spinner for this control, but that word now sends most people to the little loading circle. If the control rolls through values, picker is the clearer name.

Pickers are poor choices for long, unpredictable lists. Nobody wants to spin through every country or every year since 1900. Use a picker when the options are short, ordered, and easier to roll through than type.