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Android has both a home and a back button. The inconsistency you talk about only happens when authors poorly create their applications. Android's entire multit

Android has both a home and a back button. The inconsistency you talk about only happens when authors poorly create their applications. Android's entire multitasking functionality is built on top of a stack of activities, which is easiest to think of as a stack of screen views. I start at my "desktop", click on my Photo Gallery, decide to share an image using Dropbox, and it takes me to choosing a Dropbox folder. That's roughly three activities or so (depending on how many screens within each app I have to go through) all on a stack. Built properly, if I decide I don't want to share on Dropbox while choosing a folder, I would just hit the back button, it'd pop the Dropbox folder browsing screen off the stack, and take me back to browsing my Photo Gallery. Poorly-created apps will try and "recreate" their internal activity stack when they're not supposed to. Let's say that getting to Dropbox's folder browser if I were to launch the app independently took four activities in and of itself. If Dropbox was poorly written, it would try and recreate that natural flow of previous activities when you're just trying to do a share, so hitting the back button won't take you to the Photo Gallery from sharing. Sorry, it's complicated to explain but makes perfect sense when you're actually using a device. The tl;dr is that if app developers don't suck the back button's behavior is seamless and consistent.

dpark 15y ago
If it's complicated to explain, then it's complicated. Android's back button strikes me as an interesting idea that doesn't really work. If it depends on application X doing the right thing in order for the experience using application Y to be pleasant, then it seems pretty broken.
- Pewpewarrows 15y ago
  Again, people who've never used it think it's complicated. It's really not, and it's extremely intuitive as soon as you start using the device. In the same vain, any poorly-written application on any device that doesn't conform to UI standards and guidelines will drag down the experience when using that device. This isn't a problem unique to Android, but it's more obvious when apps violate it due to how multitasking is built into the OS from the ground-up.
  - dpark 15y ago
    If it's not complicated, why do some Android users complain about it? If it's as intuitive as you say, shouldn't everyone be happy with it? As for poorly-written apps dragging down the experience, I don't think that's necessarily a given. Obviously if you have a crappy app, then using that app sucks, but that crappy app shouldn't also make the experience of using other apps crappy.
    - rodh257 15y ago
      I've found that those that switch from iOS complain about it the most, as they are used to the one button approach. Just like swapping between any OS I guess, you have the things you are used to and initially, the new idioms don't sit well with you.
    - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
      Average internet users don't understand why Twitter hijacks their back button on the browser, but I'm sure if given the choice between no back button and one that works almost the entire time, I'm sure you can tell which they'd go for.
      - dpark 15y ago
        I'm not sure that's a very meaningful point. Your Android device is not a browser. Your desktop/laptop OS functions just fine without a global back button. So does iOS. If I'm given the choice between no global back button or one that annoys me 5% of the time, I'll take no global back button. My browser can still have its own.
        kalleboo 15y ago
        On my desktop if I'm in a stack of dialogs I often use the ESC key as a back button. iOS has zero meaningful inter-process communication (which is why every app has to have a piss-poor re-implementation of Safari and Twitter) so it doesn't even have a concept of "global".
- wvenable 15y ago
  Easily to explain: It's pretty much the same how as how the back button works in a web browser.
  - dpark 15y ago
    So the back button on your browser sometimes takes you back and sometimes dumps you onto your desktop? Also, sometimes the back button in my browser totally sucks, such as when I click a link to a Twitter message and it decides to totally break my back button so that I have to press 3 times rapidly to go back. I don't want this experience with apps on my phone.
    - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
      That's why the analogy is perfect. Twitter in this case being the poorly developed app that hijacks the back button on your browser. Would you rather your browser didn't have a back button at all?
      - dpark 15y ago
        I'd rather that Twitter didn't break my back button. But I see no value in having a global back button anyway. Who should my browser's back button sometimes take me to the previous page, sometimes take me to Microsoft Word, and sometimes drop me on the desktop? Why can't the back button do one thing right instead of a bunch of things kind-of right? And I would much rather have no global back button on my phone than a sometimes-broken one.
        jokermatt999 15y ago
        Then just hit Home? It makes sense with the way Android works. Applications are often interconnected. I can browse to reddit in Browser, click on a YouTube link and open it in the YouTube app, hit share, and open up GMail to send it to a friend. I can then hit back to go back to YouTube, then again to go back to reddit. Believe me, it feels so natural to me now that I find iOS clunky to use without it.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  It's not dependent on developers using it right. They can only make it bad by intentionally messing with the back button. The default behavior, which 99% apps use, is what the parent described. You're already used to this behavior when you press the back button on your web browser.
  - dpark 15y ago
    If developers using it wrong causes problems, then it's dependent on developers using it correctly, by definition.
    - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
      The developers don't have to use it at all. The overwhelming majority of apps don't touch it. I know you have to cheer on your team here, but the back button is completely intuitive and users like it; you're creating problems based on what is theoretically possible and not what is reality.
      - dpark 15y ago
        Sure. The back button is completely intuitive, and that's why no Android user has ever complained about it.
hamedh 15y ago
You are right, and the stack of Activities make perfect sense from the perspective of a developer. But for example, as a user, I think it's confusing that you can open an app from home screen and can go back to home 2 different ways (either back or home button). Also, if it's that easy for developers to mess up navigation, then it's going to create a frustrating experience for user.

dpark 15y ago

If it's complicated to explain, then it's complicated. Android's back button strikes me as an interesting idea that doesn't really work. If it depends on application X doing the right thing in order for the experience using application Y to be pleasant, then it seems pretty broken.

Pewpewarrows 15y ago
Again, people who've never used it think it's complicated. It's really not, and it's extremely intuitive as soon as you start using the device. In the same vain, any poorly-written application on any device that doesn't conform to UI standards and guidelines will drag down the experience when using that device. This isn't a problem unique to Android, but it's more obvious when apps violate it due to how multitasking is built into the OS from the ground-up.
- dpark 15y ago
  If it's not complicated, why do some Android users complain about it? If it's as intuitive as you say, shouldn't everyone be happy with it? As for poorly-written apps dragging down the experience, I don't think that's necessarily a given. Obviously if you have a crappy app, then using that app sucks, but that crappy app shouldn't also make the experience of using other apps crappy.
  - rodh257 15y ago
    I've found that those that switch from iOS complain about it the most, as they are used to the one button approach. Just like swapping between any OS I guess, you have the things you are used to and initially, the new idioms don't sit well with you.
  - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
    Average internet users don't understand why Twitter hijacks their back button on the browser, but I'm sure if given the choice between no back button and one that works almost the entire time, I'm sure you can tell which they'd go for.
    - dpark 15y ago
      I'm not sure that's a very meaningful point. Your Android device is not a browser. Your desktop/laptop OS functions just fine without a global back button. So does iOS. If I'm given the choice between no global back button or one that annoys me 5% of the time, I'll take no global back button. My browser can still have its own.
      - kalleboo 15y ago
        On my desktop if I'm in a stack of dialogs I often use the ESC key as a back button. iOS has zero meaningful inter-process communication (which is why every app has to have a piss-poor re-implementation of Safari and Twitter) so it doesn't even have a concept of "global".
wvenable 15y ago
Easily to explain: It's pretty much the same how as how the back button works in a web browser.
- dpark 15y ago
  So the back button on your browser sometimes takes you back and sometimes dumps you onto your desktop? Also, sometimes the back button in my browser totally sucks, such as when I click a link to a Twitter message and it decides to totally break my back button so that I have to press 3 times rapidly to go back. I don't want this experience with apps on my phone.
  - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
    That's why the analogy is perfect. Twitter in this case being the poorly developed app that hijacks the back button on your browser. Would you rather your browser didn't have a back button at all?
    - dpark 15y ago
      I'd rather that Twitter didn't break my back button. But I see no value in having a global back button anyway. Who should my browser's back button sometimes take me to the previous page, sometimes take me to Microsoft Word, and sometimes drop me on the desktop? Why can't the back button do one thing right instead of a bunch of things kind-of right? And I would much rather have no global back button on my phone than a sometimes-broken one.
      - jokermatt999 15y ago
        Then just hit Home? It makes sense with the way Android works. Applications are often interconnected. I can browse to reddit in Browser, click on a YouTube link and open it in the YouTube app, hit share, and open up GMail to send it to a friend. I can then hit back to go back to YouTube, then again to go back to reddit. Believe me, it feels so natural to me now that I find iOS clunky to use without it.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
It's not dependent on developers using it right. They can only make it bad by intentionally messing with the back button. The default behavior, which 99% apps use, is what the parent described. You're already used to this behavior when you press the back button on your web browser.
- dpark 15y ago
  If developers using it wrong causes problems, then it's dependent on developers using it correctly, by definition.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    The developers don't have to use it at all. The overwhelming majority of apps don't touch it. I know you have to cheer on your team here, but the back button is completely intuitive and users like it; you're creating problems based on what is theoretically possible and not what is reality.
    - dpark 15y ago
      Sure. The back button is completely intuitive, and that's why no Android user has ever complained about it.

hamedh 15y ago

You are right, and the stack of Activities make perfect sense from the perspective of a developer. But for example, as a user, I think it's confusing that you can open an app from home screen and can go back to home 2 different ways (either back or home button). Also, if it's that easy for developers to mess up navigation, then it's going to create a frustrating experience for user.