Respond to physical back button on Android

Question

Possible Duplicate:
is there a default back key(on device) listener in android?

How can I respond to the physical back button in my Android application? Like a listener of a sort.

I want to do things when that button is pressed!

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 22 '12 at 18:33

8

If I understand your question, simply override onBackPressed() in your Activity for API 5+.

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    super.onBackPressed();
    // Do something
}

answered Oct 22 '12 at 18:33

Sam

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While this technically overrides the back button, it doesn't change the default functionality. You need to control when super.onBackPressed() is called or not called to stifle or allow default handling. – Error 454 Oct 22 '12 at 18:54
Sorry my ignorance @Error454 I'm new to Java and Android, if I want the back button to do my own action and not the default action I can simply omit `super.onBackPressed()`, right? – Cliff Burton Aug 04 '16 at 11:05

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 18:32

2

You can use the following code:

@Override
public boolean onKeyDown( int keyCode, KeyEvent event )  {
    if ( keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK && event.getRepeatCount() == 0 ) {
        // do something on back.
        return true;
    }

    return super.onKeyDown( keyCode, event );
}

You can find more information on the Android Developer's Blog.

answered Oct 22 '12 at 18:32

Khantahr

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I actually prefer this solution, as it allows me to support Android 1.5 – Edward Falk Oct 22 '12 at 19:37

Respond to physical back button on Android

2 Answers2