Handle back gestures and predictive back animations

You can extend the abstract class NavigationEventHandler to handle navigation events across platforms. This class provides methods corresponding to the lifecycle of a navigation gesture.

val myHandler = object: NavigationEventHandler<NavigationEventInfo>(
    initialInfo = NavigationEventInfo.None,
    isBackEnabled = true
) {
    override fun onBackStarted(event: NavigationEvent) {
        // Prepare for the back event
    }

    override fun onBackProgressed(event: NavigationEvent) {
        // Use event.progress for predictive animations
    }

    // This is the required method for final event handling
    override fun onBackCompleted() {
        // Complete the back event
    }

    override fun onBackCancelled() {
        // Cancel the back event
    }
}
NavEventSnippets.kt

The addHandler function connects the handler to the dispatcher:

navigationEventDispatcher.addHandler(myHandler)
NavEventSnippets.kt

Call myHandler.remove() to remove the handler from the dispatcher:

myHandler.remove()
NavEventSnippets.kt

Handlers are invoked based on priority, and then by recency. All PRIORITY_OVERLAY handlers are called before any PRIORITY_DEFAULT handlers. Within each priority group, handlers are invoked in a Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) order — the most recently added handler is called first.

Intercept back with Jetpack Compose

For Jetpack Compose, the library provides a utility composable to manage the dispatcher hierarchy.

The NavigationBackHandler composable creates a NavigationEventHandler for its content and links it to the LocalNavigationEventDispatcherOwner. It uses Compose's DisposableEffect to automatically call the dispatcher's dispose() method when the composable leaves the screen, safely managing resources.

@Composable
public fun NavigationBackHandler(
    state: NavigationEventState<out NavigationEventInfo>,
    isBackEnabled: Boolean = true,
    onBackCancelled: () -> Unit = {},
    onBackCompleted: () -> Unit,
){

}
NavEventSnippets.kt

This function lets you control event handling precisely within localized UI subtrees.

@Composable
fun HandlingBackWithTransitionState(
    onNavigateUp: () -> Unit
) {
    val navigationState = rememberNavigationEventState(
        currentInfo = NavigationEventInfo.None
    )
    val transitionState = navigationState.transitionState
    // React to predictive back transition updates
    when (transitionState) {
        is NavigationEventTransitionState.InProgress -> {
            val progress = transitionState.latestEvent.progress
            // Use progress (0f..1f) to update UI during the gesture
        }
        is NavigationEventTransitionState.Idle -> {
            // Reset any temporary UI state if the gesture is cancelled
        }
    }
    NavigationBackHandler(
        state = navigationState,
        onBackCancelled = {
            // Called if the back gesture is cancelled
        },
        onBackCompleted = {
            // Called when the back gesture fully completes
            onNavigateUp()
        }
    )
}
NavEventSnippets.kt

This example shows how to observe predictive back gesture updates using NavigationEventTransitionState. The progress value can be used to update UI elements in response to the back gesture, while handling completion and cancellation through NavigationBackHandler.

Access the back gesture or swipe edge in Compose

Figure 1. A predictive back animation built with NavigationEvent and Compose.

To animate the screen while the user swipes back, you'll need to (a) check if the NavigationEventTransitionState is InProgress, and (b) observe the progress and swipe edge state with rememberNavigationEventState:

  • progress: A Float from 0.0 to 1.0 indicating how far the user has swiped.
  • swipeEdge: An integer constant (EDGE_LEFT or EDGE_RIGHT) indicating where the gesture started.

The following snippet is a simplified example of how to implement a scale and shift animation:

object Routes {
    const val SCREEN_A = "Screen A"
    const val SCREEN_B = "Screen B"
}

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContent {
            var state by remember { mutableStateOf(Routes.SCREEN_A) }
            val backEventState = rememberNavigationEventState<NavigationEventInfo>(currentInfo = NavigationEventInfo.None)
            when (state) {
                Routes.SCREEN_A -> {
                    ScreenA(onNavigate = { state = Routes.SCREEN_B })
                }
                else -> {
                    if (backEventState.transitionState is NavigationEventTransitionState.InProgress) {
                        ScreenA(onNavigate = { })
                    }
                    ScreenB(
                        backEventState = backEventState,
                        onBackCompleted = { state = Routes.SCREEN_A }
                    )
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

@Composable
fun ScreenB(
    backEventState: NavigationEventState<NavigationEventInfo>,
    onBackCompleted: () -> Unit = {},
) {
    val transitionState = backEventState.transitionState
    val latestEvent =
        (transitionState as? NavigationEventTransitionState.InProgress)
            ?.latestEvent
    val backProgress = latestEvent?.progress ?: 0f
    val swipeEdge = latestEvent?.swipeEdge ?: NavigationEvent.EDGE_LEFT
    if (transitionState is NavigationEventTransitionState.InProgress) {
        Log.d("BackGesture", "Progress: ${transitionState.latestEvent.progress}")
    } else if (transitionState is NavigationEventTransitionState.Idle) {
        Log.d("BackGesture", "Idle")
    }
    val animatedScale by animateFloatAsState(
        targetValue = 1f - (backProgress * 0.1f),
        label = "ScaleAnimation"
    )
    val windowInfo = LocalWindowInfo.current
    val density = LocalDensity.current
    val maxShift = remember(windowInfo, density) {
        val widthDp = with(density) { windowInfo.containerSize.width.toDp() }
        (widthDp.value / 20f) - 8
    }
    val offsetX = when (swipeEdge) {
        EDGE_LEFT -> (backProgress * maxShift).dp
        EDGE_RIGHT -> (-backProgress * maxShift).dp
        else -> 0.dp
    }
    NavigationBackHandler(
        state = backEventState,
        onBackCompleted = onBackCompleted,
        isBackEnabled = true
    )
    Box(
        modifier = Modifier
            .offset(x = offsetX)
            .scale(animatedScale)
    ){
        // Rest of UI
    }
}
NavEventSnippets.kt

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