Difference between actionBar back button and android back button

android button back
Csabi Vidó picture Csabi Vidó · Dec 3, 2014 · Viewed 7.2k times · Source

What is the difference between actionBar back button and android back button? Because it's seems that the ActionBar back button which is called with:

ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
    actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

it works way better...

example: when I press the ActionBar back button the animations are there, but if I press the default back button they aren't.

I can change theme from a preference activity: If I go back with the ActionBar back button the colors instantly changed, but with the default I have to restart the app....

how can I make my default back button to behave like the ActionBar one?

Answer

Julian Suarez picture Julian Suarez · Dec 3, 2014

The ActionBar "back" button is actually an "Up" button and it should take you to higher level on your app's navigation hierarchy. The back button takes you to the last place you were looking at.

Another great tip to better undertand this is that the "Up" button should always take you to a place on your app, while the back button might take you to another app.

You might want to read this article to better understand the difference: http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html

Related questions

How do I kill an Activity when the Back button is pressed?

I got an Activity that when it starts, it loads an image from the internet. In an effort to save memory, when the Activity is left by the back button being pressed, I want the activity to dump all data, …

Read More
How to handle Back button with in the dialog?

I am developing an application that when the button is pressed, it opens a dialog with OK and Cancel buttons. It works fine. When the user presses the back button, I am handling this as follows public boolean onKeyDown(int …

Read More
Android - How to animate an activity transition when the default back button is pressed

In my activity, I have a button with the following click listener that is working great: final ImageButton startOverButton = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.start_over_button); startOverButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){ @Override public void onClick(final View v) { finish();//go …

Read More