In my own custom android home screen, how do I catch the home button?

Question

I know that android does not allow us to catch the home button press; however, I have my own built home screen replacement app and want to just know when the button was pressed to allow animations.

So, my app has just one activity as I do most of my "activities" as canvas drawing so I can have complete control over the visual aesthetics of my app. The problem is if the user navigates to a different page within the app and presses home, nothing happens, since the app is technically already in the same activity.

I want to know when the button is pressed so I can then animate/navigate my app back to the main screen. Also, I know I could accomplish this by having separate real activities however that won't work for what I'm trying to do.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '12 at 19:03

2

You need to add <category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME"/> to your activity's intent filter in your app's Android.xml

You can take a look at "Home" app in Android SDK samples. They can be downloaded using these instructions.

answered Nov 16 '12 at 19:03

Anton Cherkashyn

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 21 '16 at 07:39

2

//overriding method

    @Override
    public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {     

        if(keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_HOME)
        {
           //The Code Want to Perform. 
        }
    });

answered Apr 21 '16 at 07:39

NitinM

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

0

You can detect when the home button is pressed because onPause() is always called. You are not allowed to override the home button, but the following should work

@Override
protected void onPause() 
{
    super.onPause();
    //code here
}

Of course the problem with using this is that it will be called even if the user is not quitting the app(ie. If they are sent to another application through an intent)

That is the closest that you are going to get to a onHomeButtonPressedListener there are really no ways to do this

Home key press Event Listener

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

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answered Nov 16 '12 at 19:03

jcw

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hmm well let me add to what i was asking, you know when your on the stock home screen you can slide a screen to the left then press the home button and the app knows to slide back to the center page? i basically want to accomplish the same thing. – FADE Nov 17 '12 at 20:53
hmm well let me add to what i was asking, you know when your on the stock home screen you can slide a screen to the left then press the home button and the app knows to slide back to the center page? i basically want to accomplish the same thing. anton ^^I've already done this @jcw ^^onpause does not get called because my app IS the home app currently chosen so it doesnt pause as android knows its the same app – FADE Nov 17 '12 at 21:27

In my own custom android home screen, how do I catch the home button?

3 Answers3