Clicking the back button twice to exit an activity

Question

I've noticed this pattern in a lot of Android apps and games recently: when clicking the back button to "exit" the application, a Toast comes up with a message similar to "Please click BACK again to exit".

I was wondering, as I'm seeing it more and more often, is that a built-in feature that you can somehow access in an activity? I've looked at the source code of many classes but I can't seem to find anything about that.

Of course, I can think about a few ways to achieve the same functionality quite easily (the easiest is probably to keep a boolean in the activity that indicates whether the user already clicked once...) but I was wondering if there's something already here.

EDIT: As @LAS_VEGAS mentioned, I didn't really mean "exit" in the traditional meaning. (i.e. terminated) I meant "going back to whatever was open before the application start activity was launched", if that makes sense :)

Answer 1

This is the same of the accepted and most voted response but this snipped used Snackbar instead of Toast.

boolean doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = false;

    @Override
    public void onBackPressed() {
        if (doubleBackToExitPressedOnce) {
            super.onBackPressed();
            return;
        }

        this.doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = true;
        Snackbar.make(content, "Please click BACK again to exit", Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT)
                .setAction("Action", null).show();


        new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                doubleBackToExitPressedOnce=false;
            }
        }, 2000);
    }

Answer 2

In Java Activity:

boolean doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = false;

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    if (doubleBackToExitPressedOnce) {
        super.onBackPressed();
        return;
    }

    this.doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = true;
    Toast.makeText(this, "Please click BACK again to exit", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

    new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {

        @Override
        public void run() {
            doubleBackToExitPressedOnce=false;                       
        }
    }, 2000);
} 

In Kotlin Activity:

private var doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = false
override fun onBackPressed() {
        if (doubleBackToExitPressedOnce) {
            super.onBackPressed()
            return
        }

        this.doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = true
        Toast.makeText(this, "Please click BACK again to exit", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()

        Handler().postDelayed(Runnable { doubleBackToExitPressedOnce = false }, 2000)
    }

I Think this handler helps to reset the variable after 2 second.

Answer 3

My solution using snackbar:

LinearLayout mLayout;
Snackbar mSnackbar;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    mLayout = findViewById(R.id.layout_main);
    mSnackbar = Snackbar.make(mLayout, R.string.press_back_again, Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT);
}

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    if (mSnackbar.isShown()) {
        super.onBackPressed();
    } else {
        mSnackbar.show();
    }
}

Simple and stylish.

Answer 4

Here is another way... using the CountDownTimer method

private boolean exit = false;
@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
        if (exit) {
            finish();
        } else {
            Toast.makeText(this, "Press back again to exit",
                    Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            exit = true;
            new CountDownTimer(3000,1000) {

                @Override
                public void onTick(long l) {

                }

                @Override
                public void onFinish() {
                    exit = false;
                }
            }.start();
        }

    }

Answer 5

Recently, I needed to implement this back button feature in an app of mine. The answers on the original question were useful, but I had to take two more points into consideration:

1. At some points in time, the back button is disabled
2. The main activity is using fragments in combination with a back stack

Based on the answers and comments, I created the following code:

private static final long BACK_PRESS_DELAY = 1000;

private boolean mBackPressCancelled = false;
private long mBackPressTimestamp;
private Toast mBackPressToast;

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    // Do nothing if the back button is disabled.
    if (!mBackPressCancelled) {
        // Pop fragment if the back stack is not empty.
        if (getSupportFragmentManager().getBackStackEntryCount() > 0) {
            super.onBackPressed();
        } else {
            if (mBackPressToast != null) {
                mBackPressToast.cancel();
            }

            long currentTimestamp = System.currentTimeMillis();

            if (currentTimestamp < mBackPressTimestamp + BACK_PRESS_DELAY) {
                super.onBackPressed();
            } else {
                mBackPressTimestamp = currentTimestamp;

                mBackPressToast = Toast.makeText(this, getString(R.string.warning_exit), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
                mBackPressToast.show();
            }
        }
    }
}

The code above assumes that the support library is used. If you use fragments but not the support library, you want to replace getSupportFragmentManager() by getFragmentManager().

Remove the first if, if the back button is never cancelled. Remove the second if, if you don`t use fragments or a fragment back stack

Also, it is important to be aware that the method onBackPressed is supported since Android 2.0. Check this page for an elaborate description. To make the back press feature work on older versions as well, add the following method to your activity:

@Override
public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)  {
    if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.ECLAIR
            && keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK
            && event.getRepeatCount() == 0) {
        // Take care of calling this method on earlier versions of
        // the platform where it doesn't exist.
        onBackPressed();
    }

    return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}

Answer 6

In my case, I've depend on Snackbar#isShown() for better UX.

private Snackbar exitSnackBar;

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    if (isNavDrawerOpen()) {
        closeNavDrawer();
    } else if (getSupportFragmentManager().getBackStackEntryCount() == 0) {
        if (exitSnackBar != null && exitSnackBar.isShown()) {
            super.onBackPressed();
        } else {
            exitSnackBar = Snackbar.make(
                    binding.getRoot(),
                    R.string.navigation_exit,
                    2000
            );
            exitSnackBar.show();
        }
    } else {
        super.onBackPressed();
    }
}