Android: open activity without save into the stack

Asked 10/9, 2012 at 19:50 Answered 16/10, 2021 at 14:52

101

I have 2 activities: Main and List.

From Main you can open List; from List you can open Main.

I'd like it so that every opening of List does not get saved into the 'history'. So, pressing back from Main cannot return to List.

Is it possible?

Pattiepattin answered 10/9, 2012 at 19:50 Comment(3)

If 'list' starts 'main' then have it call finish() immediately after startActivity(...). That way if the user presses BACK from 'main' there will be nothing to go back to. – Achromic 10/9, 2012 at 20:8

this is for notification navigation but the concepts may be applicable developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/notifiers/… – Cymatium 16/2, 2016 at 18:52

please accept the answer that says to finish() current activity after starting the next one! – Authenticity 10/2, 2021 at 16:53

174

When starting your list's Activity, set its Intent flags like so:

Intent i = new Intent(...); // Your list's Intent
i.setFlags(i.getFlags() | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY); // Adds the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY flag
startActivity(i);

The FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY flag keeps the new Activity from being added to the history stack.

NB: As @Sam points out, you can use i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY); instead. There is no functional difference.

Sandon answered 10/9, 2012 at 19:56 Comment(10)

Just a little comment on this method:this one will work perfectly if there is only 2 Activity. But if the list Activity is able to launch another Activity( let say third Activity), a press to the back button in the third Activity will return to the main Activity and not the list Activity – Trover 10/9, 2012 at 20:4

Indeed. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid that. There is no Intent flag which states "only adds to history if not returning to the Activity of origin". – Sandon 10/9, 2012 at 20:8

no but the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag will do the job, list Activity will be added to the history but always at the top, so a back press from main Activity will not display the list Activity – Trover 10/9, 2012 at 20:10

@Trover I don't think that's right. It starts a new task (set of Activitys) that operate independently of the previous Activity. So, if you started the main Activity from within this new task, it would also count as part of that new task. If FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK was instead applied to the main Activity, that may solve the issue. – Sandon 10/9, 2012 at 20:15

Is there any particular reason you used setFlags() with getFlags() instead of Intent.addFlags()? – Mowery 10/9, 2012 at 20:27

@Mowery Habit, probably. That's just how I'm used to doing bit flags. Good catch. – Sandon 10/9, 2012 at 20:36

@Trover it's exactly what I want ! a -> b -> c and return directly to c- – Pattiepattin 11/9, 2012 at 10:56

Add the following empty method to your next activity to prevent exiting the app on clicking back button: @Override public void onBackPressed() { } – Gershwin 29/11, 2017 at 19:58

Unfortunately the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY did not work for me. In my example I launch an intent with the above flag, then when clicking to go back the app previously launched with the intent is still in the back stack. – Ligation 22/9, 2018 at 4:9

please see the answer that says to finish() current activity after starting the next one! – Authenticity 10/2, 2021 at 16:53

100

In the manifest file add:

android:noHistory="true"

to the activity that you don't want to keep on the stack.

Scamander answered 10/9, 2012 at 20:0 Comment(6)

is thre any difference from starting activity with flag no_history? – Pattiepattin 11/9, 2012 at 10:57

Like you said in your question "every opening of list DOES NOT be saved into 'history'" Therefore whenever you open your application again that will bring you to the main activity – Scamander 11/9, 2012 at 17:28

@MarcinS. when app is not in recent app list it is not working. Can you please explain about it why this is happening – Theda 5/8, 2015 at 10:33

So what is the difference between those 2 approaches (manifest and flag) ? – Arabesque 26/11, 2017 at 17:13

@Arabesque Manifest approach will always leave the activity out of the history. The flag approach lets you control that behavior at runtime. – Mohn 27/11, 2018 at 15:5

I have a crash with no log when I add this and then ask for some permissions in that activity (Kotlin) – Lovely 28/2, 2019 at 8:8

Use the new task with clearing. This worked in my case when the other options didnt.

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

Clear the entire history stack and start a new activity on Android

Mastership answered 18/6, 2014 at 19:22 Comment(2)

This would be great, but is there a way to stop the system's sweeping "changing task" animation? Adding FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_ANIMATION doesn't prevent it, unfortunately! – Invalid 26/8, 2017 at 4:54

this impacts on the application speed? – Brittney 8/3, 2019 at 19:54

It seems, if you call finish() on your activity right after you have opened another, the one that is finished is removed from the stack.

for example:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, NextActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();

Berlioz answered 25/9, 2013 at 15:5 Comment(3)

If your phone is no so fast you'll see as previous activity is moving off. – Vindicable 27/11, 2015 at 22:6

@Vindicable that is only if you finish before you start activity – Cougar 9/2, 2017 at 9:45

this is the best answer!! c'mon accept it instead! – Authenticity 10/2, 2021 at 16:52

In my particular case FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY did not work. Neither did FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK or FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK alone by themselves work.

However FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK and FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK together did work.

Intent intent = new Intent(FooActivity.this, MainActivity.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);
startActivity(intent);

Jessjessa answered 28/10, 2015 at 17:46 Comment(1)

Not the answer to this question, but exactly what I was looking for! – Grad 16/12, 2020 at 9:33

Late answer, but adds some depth to other answers. It all comes down to what do you want to happen with other activities started from that activity

Option 1 - Just this one activity should not have history of calling activity

Then just do:

Intent i = new Intent(...);
i.addFlag(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY);
startActivity(i);

Option 2 - All activities started from that specific activity should not have history

Then add in manifest of the calling activity:

android:noHistory="true"

But if you do want to have history in new activity, then you have to manually remove the flag:

Intent i = new Intent(...);
i.removeFlag(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY);
startActivity(i);

Hope that clears up other answers :)

Kosak answered 4/7, 2018 at 10:28 Comment(0)

Just wanted to add a way to do this in Kotlin:

val i = Intent(this, LogInActivity::class.java)
startActivity(i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK))

Garneau answered 8/2, 2018 at 22:50 Comment(1)

More of a Kotlin way:

Intent(this, MainActivity::class.java).apply {             addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK)         }.also {             startActivity(it)         }

– Cascio 17/3, 2019 at 11:31

Try FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP if the activity is already running:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyActivity.class);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
startActivity(intent);

Deaver answered 7/8, 2018 at 19:23 Comment(0)

add the flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK to your Intent

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK

Trover answered 10/9, 2012 at 19:57 Comment(0)

case : 1

use this flag

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

in this case activity transition no smoothly working blank white page before going startactvity

cas 2 :

Intent intent = new Intent(this, NextActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();

If your phone is no so fast you'll see as previous activity is moving off , I hope to days most off the device will take care of this

Strephonn answered 16/10, 2021 at 14:52 Comment(0)

-5

Can you not override the back button on the particular activity to stop the 'return' functionality?

@Override
public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
    if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) {

        return true;
    }
    return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}

Agra answered 10/9, 2012 at 19:53 Comment(3)

Don't do this. It is acceptable to intercept BACK for specific purposes but to do it purely to consume the BACK press silently and preventing termination of an Activity is not good practice. – Achromic 10/9, 2012 at 20:10

Agree entirely ^ just an option. – Agra 10/9, 2012 at 20:22

There is OnBackPressed for that. – Jessjessa 28/10, 2015 at 17:36

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