Android - Shared element transitions with calling activity finish()

Question

I'm working on making an application more Material and I'm just stuck on how to implement some shared element transitions. I have an activity A that starts another B and then calls finish() in order to remove it from the back stack. In my case I have an element I want to share between the two activities, but once it is passed from A to B, A no longer matters. If I don't call finish() after startActivity(ctx,intent, bundle) the exit/enter animation works perfectly. However, if I do call finish, there's a really ugly flicker before the animation starts.

Is there something I'm overlooking or is it just not possible to do what I am trying to do?

Jenna

Answer 1

You can finish your activity in the onStop function, if you only want this to happen when you transition from A to B then create a flag and set it after you call startActivity(ctx,intent, bundle):

@Override
public void onStop() {
    super.onStop();
    if(mShouldFinish)
         finish();
}

Make sure when you are done with activity B to call finish() and not finishAfterTranstion() since activity A is no longer there

After finishing the activity A, shared element in B might hang in screen if you press back. Set transitionName to null in ActivityB.onEnterAnimationComplete to avoid this.

Dorothadorothea

This does not work for me, the shared element transition is not correct when I do this. Everything is fine if I don't finish Activity A but I want to do so after the transition is finished. Can't get this to work. – Corduroys

Only this solution worked when using shared elements transition – Antecedency

It almost was great solution for me... but it doesn't work on huawei :) – Cincinnati

Answer 2

UPDATE

Much better and simpler way

ActivityCompat. finishAfterTransition(this);

<3 support library.

Gilman

I cant seem to find finishWithTransition. So I tried finishAfterTransition and did not work either. – Alessi

Its in support library. Also try bumping your targetSDK version – Gilman

The call is actually: ActivityCompat.finishAfterTransition(this); Just tested and it works great. – Danialdaniala

this still causes flickering for me using a shared element. – Trackandfield

what do you mean by flickering ? can you upload some gif some where and post link here – Gilman

@ksarmalkar, finishAfterTransition doesn't call finish after the transition is complete; it just calls finish immediately. So if you are transitioning from Activity A to B, and B fades in, then A is gone so the Home screen bleeds through (or possibly another Activity). Note: this seems to happen only when using shared transitions. – Secretion

finishAfterTransition is just calls after the activity transition, the shared elements is a different transition and you need to do the booleantrick. – Splashy

ActivityCompat. finishAfterTransition(this); is buggy, sometimes it is finishing, sometimes not, sometimes it is even causing crashes...... – Antecedency

Answer 3

This is maybe late but I had the same issue. What worked for me is:

supportFinishAfterTransition();

This is included in the support library and works like charm.

PS: you don't needto call finish() when you call supportFinishAfterTransition() .

Sika

Answer 4

I've written a variation of this answer which I find a bit more elegant as you don't need a field.
This is still far from ideal but it works in my use case which is basically a splash screen with a transition to the next screen and I want the splash screen to be closed right away. This works because onStop is called when the activity is not visible anymore, thus at that point we can actually close it without causing artifacts (in this case this blinking / flickering)

lifecycle.addObserver(object : LifecycleEventObserver {
    override fun onStateChanged(source: LifecycleOwner, event: Lifecycle.Event) {
        if (event == Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP) {
            lifecycle.removeObserver(this)
            finish()
        }
    }
})

Eal

Answer 5

Try out finishAfterTransition() method in 5.0 and above you can finish the activity after the exit transition occurs.

Musselman

Answer 6

If you use ActivityOptions.makeSceneTransitionAnimation(Activity, android.view.View, String) to make your transition you should use its callback method in Activity B to finish Activity A.

    setEnterSharedElementCallback(new SharedElementCallback() {
        @Override
        public void onSharedElementEnd(List<String> sharedElementNames, List<View> sharedElements, List<View> sharedElementSnapshots) {
            super.onSharedElementEnd(sharedElementNames, sharedElements, sharedElementSnapshots);
                // finish Activity A

        }
    });

Courtship