Handling Android Back Button Press in React Native

Android Back Button

When the user presses the Android hardware back button in React Native, react-navigation will pop a screen or exit the app if there are no screens to pop. This is the sensible default behavior, but there are situations when you might want to implement custom handling. This is where handling the android back button is useful. You can also check react-navigation-backhandler library to handle the back press.

Event Listener for Back Button Press

To handle the Android Back Button Press in the React Native we have to register the hardwareBackPress event listener with a callback function, which will be called after pressing the Back Button. We should also remove the listener when we are jumping out from the screen (where we have added the listener) because sometimes after going to the next screen or any other screen the listener remains active in the background if the last screen is in the stack and not killed by the system.

The event subscriptions are called in reverse order (i.e. last registered subscription first), and if one subscription returns true then subscriptions registered earlier will not be called. 

Add hardwareBackPress Event Listener

// BackHandler.addEventListener(
//     <Event Name>,
//     <Function to be Called>
//);
BackHandler.addEventListener('hardwareBackPress', onBackPress);

Remove hardwareBackPress Event Listener

// BackHandler.removeEventListener(
//     <Event Name>,
//     <Function>
//);
BackHandler.removeEventListener('hardwareBackPress', onBackPress);

Handle the event

useFocusEffect(
  React.useCallback(() => {
    const onBackPress = () => {
      // Do Whatever you want to do on back button click
      // Return true to stop default back navigaton
      // Return false to keep default back navigaton
      return true;
    };

    BackHandler.addEventListener(
      'hardwareBackPress', onBackPress
    );

    return () =>
      BackHandler.removeEventListener(
        'hardwareBackPress', onBackPress
      );
  }, [])
);

Returning true from onBackPress denotes that we have handled the event, and react-navigation’s listener will not get called, thus not popping the screen. Returning false will cause the event to bubble up and react-navigation’s listener will pop the screen.

What we are going to do?

In our example, we are going from FirstPage to SecondPage using navigate and after clicking Back Button on SecondPage we will navigate to ThirdPage with an alert. So let’s get started.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependencies

To install the dependencies open the terminal and jump into your project

cd ProjectName

1. Install react-navigation

npm install @react-navigation/native --save

2. Other supporting libraries react-native-screens and react-native-safe-area-context

npm install react-native-screens react-native-safe-area-context --save

react-native-screens package requires one additional configuration step to properly work on Android devices. Edit MainActivity.java file which is located in android/app/src/main/java/<your package name>/MainActivity.java.

Add the following code to the body of MainActivity class:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(null);
}

and make sure to add the following import statement at the top of this file below your package statement:

import android.os.Bundle;

This change is required to avoid crashes related to View state being not persisted consistently across Activity restarts.

3. For the Stack Navigator install

npm install @react-navigation/native-stack --save

CocoaPods Installation

Please use the following command to install CocoaPods

npx pod-install

Project File Structure

To start with this Example you need to create a directory named pages in your project and create three files FirstPge.js, SecondPage.js, and ThirdPage.js.

Code to Handle Android Back Button

Now Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

// Handling Android Back Button Press in React Native
// https://aboutreact.com/handling-android-back-button-press/

import React from 'react';

import { NavigationContainer } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createNativeStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/native-stack';

import FirstPage from './pages/FirstPage';
import SecondPage from './pages/SecondPage';
import ThirdPage from './pages/ThirdPage';

const Stack = createNativeStackNavigator();

function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Stack.Navigator initialRouteName="FirstPage">
        <Stack.Screen
          name="FirstPage"
          component={FirstPage}
          options={{
            title: 'First Page', //Set Header Title
            headerStyle: {
              backgroundColor: '#f4511e', //Set Header color
            },
            headerTintColor: '#fff', //Set Header text color
            headerTitleStyle: {
              fontWeight: 'bold', //Set Header text style
            },
          }}
        />
        <Stack.Screen
          name="SecondPage"
          component={SecondPage}
          options={{
            title: 'Second Page', //Set Header Title
            headerStyle: {
              backgroundColor: '#f4511e', //Set Header color
            },
            headerTintColor: '#fff', //Set Header text color
            headerTitleStyle: {
              fontWeight: 'bold', //Set Header text style
            },
          }}
        />
        <Stack.Screen
          name="ThirdPage"
          component={ThirdPage}
          options={{
            title: 'Third Page', //Set Header Title
            headerStyle: {
              backgroundColor: '#f4511e', //Set Header color
            },
            headerTintColor: '#fff', //Set Header text color
            headerTitleStyle: {
              fontWeight: 'bold', //Set Header text style
            },
          }}
        />
      </Stack.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

export default App;

Open pages/FirstPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

FirstPage.js

// Handling Android Back Button Press in React Native
// https://aboutreact.com/handling-android-back-button-press/

import React from 'react';
import {Button, View, Text, SafeAreaView} from 'react-native';

const FirstPage = ({navigation}) => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View
          style={{
            flex: 1,
            alignItems: 'center',
            justifyContent: 'center',
          }}>
          <Text
            style={{
              fontSize: 25,
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            This is the First Page of the app
          </Text>
          <Button
            onPress={
              () => navigation.navigate('SecondPage')
            }
            title="Go to Second Page"
          />
        </View>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 18,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          Handling Android Back Button
          {'\n'}
          React Navigation
        </Text>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 16,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          www.aboutreact.com
        </Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

export default FirstPage;

Open pages/SecondPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

SecondPage.js

// Handling Android Back Button Press in React Native
// https://aboutreact.com/handling-android-back-button-press/

import React from 'react';
import {
  Button,
  View,
  Text,
  SafeAreaView,
  BackHandler
} from 'react-native';
import {
 useFocusEffect
} from '@react-navigation/native';

const SecondPage = ({navigation}) => {
  // useFocusEffect get called each time when screen comes in focus
  useFocusEffect(
    React.useCallback(() => {
      const onBackPress = () => {
        navigation.navigate('ThirdPage');
        // Return true to stop default back navigaton
        // Return false to keep default back navigaton
        return true;
      };

      // Add Event Listener for hardwareBackPress
      BackHandler.addEventListener(
        'hardwareBackPress',
        onBackPress
      );

      return () => {
        // Once the Screen gets blur Remove Event Listener
        BackHandler.removeEventListener(
          'hardwareBackPress',
          onBackPress
        );
      };
    }, []),
  );

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View
          style={{
            flex: 1,
            alignItems: 'center',
            justifyContent: 'center',
          }}>
          <Text
            style={{
              fontSize: 25,
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            This is Second Page of the App
          </Text>
          <Text
            style={{
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            Use "Go back" Button to go to First Screen 
            else use back button of your Android device 
            to go to Third Screen
          </Text>
          <Button
            title="Go back"
            onPress={() => navigation.goBack()}
          />
        </View>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 18,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          Handling Android Back Button
          {'\n'}
          React Navigation
        </Text>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 16,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          www.aboutreact.com
        </Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

export default SecondPage;

Open pages/ThirdPage.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code.

ThirdPage.js

// Handling Android Back Button Press in React Native
// https://aboutreact.com/handling-android-back-button-press/

import React from 'react';
import {
  View,
  Text,
  SafeAreaView,
  BackHandler
} from 'react-native';
import {
  useFocusEffect
} from '@react-navigation/native';

const ThirdPage = () => {
  // useFocusEffect get called each time when screen comes in focus
  useFocusEffect(
    React.useCallback(() => {
      const onBackPress = () => {
        alert('Back Press handled and doing no action');
        // Return true to stop default back navigaton
        // Return false to keep default back navigaton
        return true;
      };

      // Add Event Listener for hardwareBackPress
      BackHandler.addEventListener(
        'hardwareBackPress',
        onBackPress
      );

      return () => {
        // Once the Screen gets blur Remove Event Listener
        BackHandler.removeEventListener(
          'hardwareBackPress',
          onBackPress
        );
      };
    }, []),
  );
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={{flex: 1, padding: 16}}>
        <View
          style={{
            flex: 1,
            alignItems: 'center',
            justifyContent: 'center',
          }}>
          <Text
            style={{
              fontSize: 25,
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            This is Third Page of the App
          </Text>
          <Text
            style={{
              textAlign: 'center',
              marginBottom: 16,
            }}>
            In this screen with the help of BackHandler 
            we are overriding the default back navigation 
            and generating Alert (For Android)
          </Text>
        </View>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 18,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          Handling Android Back Button{'\n'}React Navigation
        </Text>
        <Text
          style={{
            fontSize: 16,
            textAlign: 'center',
            color: 'grey'
          }}>
          www.aboutreact.com
        </Text>
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

export default ThirdPage;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

That was the way to handle the Android Back Button. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂