How can I load - inflate items to a Recycler view without locking the UI or showing a load icon? - android-recyclerview

Question

I just want to be able to display a list of contacts (without even communicating to a server) just the way it is displayed on the "Contacts" native app on the phone.
I have like 1500 contacts and when I try to load the recycler view, all items at once, it lags a lot 2 - 3 seconds.
I've achieved loading more items but with a loading bar and thats not what I want.
I've already tried Threads, Executors, postOnUIThread(), handler.post() and even AsyncTask -> Override -> doOnBackground. Nothing works.
private class CustomTask extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
int inserted;
#Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... param) {
//Do some work
try {
lcf.getActivity().runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
((BaseActivity) lcf.getActivity()).showProgressDialog();
}
});
int currentSize = contactsLoaded.size();
for (inserted = 0; inserted < lcf.getController().getContacts().size() && contactsLoaded.size() < lcf.getController().getContacts().size(); inserted++) {
contactsLoaded.add(lcf.getController().getContacts().get(currentSize + inserted));
notifyItemRangeInserted(contactsLoaded.size() - 1, inserted);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(Void param) {
//Print Toast or open dialog
//notifyItemRangeInserted(contactsLoaded.size() - 1, 0);
if(!lcf.getController().isSelectedAffiliated()){
lcf.disclaimerLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}else{
lcf.disclaimerLayout.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
lcf.isLoading=false;
((BaseActivity) lcf.getActivity()).hideProgressDialog();
}
}
That code lives within my adapter, "lcf" is a reference to the fragment. If I use the already loaded list saved on the controller (that I get from the fragment reference) and then just call notifyDataSetChanged() it LAGS like hell. So with this CustomTask I tried to load every item and notify it one by one to a Background task hoping it would make the items pop up quickly and sequentially without interfereing with the UI thread to not freeze the screen. It doesn't work. I am out of options now. I've tried everything.