Android Question Home key

[GiovanniPolese]

The present is more a general UI "style" question, than a programming question. I notice that the position of the "home" key in a tablet, for example, is very near the back one. Now, while th Back keypress can be "trapped" and managed, the "home" one not. In one of my apps, I decided to systematically use the back key to return to previous screen, without explicitly putting a Back button. The result is that often happens that the user closes the app, against his will, just because his finger touched the Home key instead of the Back one. This is probably a very stupid problem but it seems to me a real problem. My question is then: is it better to always put a Back button (just to reduce the possibility of unwanted Home key pressing) or what else can be done? Thanks in advance for any comments..

 

[thedesolatesoul]

The back key is one of Android's biggest problems and causes inconsistent behaviour (but it is the one thing that distinguishes it from iOS navigation).
It is safer to put a back button in the actionbar, but ofcourse it is a lot more work doing that on every activity.

 

[GiovanniPolese]

Thanks. I guess that you understood correctly, anyway, despite actually the problem is not the Back key but the "Home" key that closes, without any chance, the app, ( if I don't miss something: the Home keypress event is not accessible). My idea to put the back button explictly, and not rely on the system Back key, is just to limit "physically" the possibility that a user presses the Home, instead of the Back, closing the App. (The two keys are very near in a Samsung Tablet). Being manageable, the Back button is not a problem.. the problem is the "unmanageable" Home.. There should be a good reason for it, otherwise we have to thank some genius at Google dev team..