Removing an activity from the history stack

Question

My app shows a signup activity the first time the user runs the app, looks like:

1. ActivitySplashScreen (welcome to game, sign up for an account?)
2. ActivitySplashScreenSignUp (great, fill in this info)
3. ActivityGameMain (main game screen)

so the activities launch each other in exactly that order, when the user clicks through a button on each screen.

When the user goes from activity #2 to #3, is it possible to wipe #1 and #2 off the history stack completely? I'd like it so that if the user is at #3, and hits the back button, they just go to the homescreen, instead of back to the splash screen.

I think I can accomplish this with tasks (ie. start a new task on #3) but wanted to see if there was simpler method,

Thanks

Answer 1

It is crazy that no one has mentioned this elegant solution. This should be the accepted answer.

SplashActivity -> AuthActivity -> DashActivity

if (!sessionManager.isLoggedIn()) {
    Intent intent = new Intent(context, AuthActivity.class);
    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY);
    context.startActivity(intent);
    finish();
} else {
   Intent intent = new Intent(context, DashActivity.class);
   context.startActivity(intent);
    finish();
}

The key here is to use intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY); for the intermediary Activity. Once that middle link is broken, the DashActivity will the first and last in the stack.

android:noHistory="true" is a bad solution, as it causes problems when relying on the Activity as a callback e.g onActivityResult. This is the recommended solution and should be accepted.

Answer 2

Just set noHistory="true" in Manifest file. It makes activity being removed from the backstack.

Answer 3

In the manifest you can add:

android:noHistory="true"

<activity
android:name=".ActivityName"
android:noHistory="true" />

You can also call

finish()

immediately after calling startActivity(..)

Answer 4

It's too late but hope it helps. Most of the answers are not pointing into the right direction. There are two simple flags for such thing.

intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);

From Android docs:

public static final int FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK Added in API level 11

If set in an Intent passed to Context.startActivity(), this flag will cause any existing task that would be associated with the

activity to be cleared before the activity is started. That is, the activity becomes the new root of an otherwise empty task, and any old activities are finished. This can only be used in conjunction with FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK.

Answer 5

One way that works pre API 11 is to start ActivityGameMain first, then in the onCreate of that Activity start your ActivitySplashScreen activity. The ActivityGameMain won't appear as you call startActivity too soon for the splash.

Then you can clear the stack when starting ActivityGameMain by setting these flags on the Intent:

intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

You also must add this to ActivitySplashScreen:

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    moveTaskToBack(true);
}

So that pressing back on that activity doesn't go back to your ActivityGameMain.

I assume you don't want the splash screen to be gone back to either, to achieve this I suggest setting it to noHistory in your AndroidManifest.xml. Then put the goBackPressed code in your ActivitySplashScreenSignUp class instead.

However I have found a few ways to break this. Start another app from a notification while ActivitySplashScreenSignUp is shown and the back history is not reset.

The only real way around this is in API 11:

intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);

Answer 6

Yes, have a look at Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY.