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This isn't a technical questions, more a quest for knowledge.

I have never owned an Android device only ever iOS so have no idea of the natural gestures Android users use frequently. I am writing my app for Android and have to display a "Contexual menu". The way this is shown is user performs a "long press" on a ListView.

On iOS needing the user to perform a long press gesture isn't always obvious so I would tend to add a prompt telling them to long press to see options.

My question is do Android users need to have the prompt or for them is a long press as natural as a swipe?

halfer
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RyanTCB
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  • You need to declare that perticular event to perform some actions. Try the below link to understand more about events http://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/android_event_handling.htm – Rakshit Nawani Mar 02 '16 at 07:20
  • long press used to be very common before but nowadays it isn't so I would suggest showing the prompt, nowadays overflow icons(the 3 vertical dot icon) is shown to show that this item has more options – Bhargav Mar 02 '16 at 07:21
  • @RakshitNawani he is not asking how to do it, rather if its a common practice in android – Bhargav Mar 02 '16 at 07:21
  • Exactly that if it's common – RyanTCB Mar 02 '16 at 07:23
  • One difference I've noticed from those in the community that help on SO is that iOS community don't just vote down questions for the sake of it. Android community do. Why? – RyanTCB Mar 03 '16 at 11:21

3 Answers3

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Yes and no.

It is classic Android UX to expect a context menu will appear on a long press. The Android UI widgets normally communicate this by adjusting the background of the widget to indicate that the system is still considering the length of the touch.

Material design has prescription for long press behavior as well. And in other places the gesture has reflection in the UI.

That said, there is no obligation to depend on this interaction, and you're free to provide some other means of showing a contextual menu, for example, some other button associated with the data.

Doug Stevenson
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The ripple effect is there to show long press actions, it is still practiced in google's apps, in other famous apps like ES file explorer, so if you can get the ripple effect in, then I guess you don't need to show any prompt.

long press used to be very common before but nowadays it isn't so I would suggest showing the prompt, nowadays overflow icons(the 3 vertical dot icon) is shown to show that this item has more options, especially when using cards

Bhargav
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Long press is not needed just a "tap" will bring up the"Contextual menu"

501st
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