How to disable Home and other system buttons in Android

Question

I need to disable Home and other system buttons in my Android application   Example  MX Player  see at Google Play  - you can press  lock  icon at player screen and it locks all hardware and software system buttons    It works fine WITHOUT ROOTING    I tested it on some devices with different Android versions  I tried to disassemble Kids Lock  plugin  but has no clue how it works yet   I need same solution like the Kids Lock  plugin  for MX Player   - disable Home  Back and all other system buttons   Any suggestions

User · Answer

Sorry for answering after 2-3 years  but you can hide activity of all system buttons  Just check this my answers How to disable virtual home button in any activity

User · Answer

For anyone looking to completely remove the soft-nav on a rooted  or custom ROM  android device  you can modify the build prop text file within the system folder   Set the following variable value   gemu hw mainkeys 1  This is what vendors use to disable the soft nav  when they have physical buttons

User · Answer

I m working on an application that needs to lock the tablet just for application  First I put my app as MainLauncher  then I lock the taskbar using an AndroidView  Finally I block the tablet  It is not a feature that I indicate to use across multiple tablet models  since each device model has a feature to block it   But overall it works for everyone  You can use the commands   Java Lang Runtime GetRuntime   Exec  su -c sed -i   VOLUME UP s      g   system usr keylayout Generic kl      as an example to disable the buttons  But everything is based on changing the system files  inside the folder    system   usr   keylayout         NOTE  Only works on rooted devices   Another way I m trying though still developing is using StreamWrite and StreamReader to access the RootDirectory and rewrite the whole file to disable and enable the buttons   Hope this helps   And any questions remain available

User · Answer

If you target android 5 0 and above  You could use   Activity startLockTask

User · Answer

First of  please think long and hard if you really want to disable the Home button or any other button for that matter  e g  the Back button   this is not something that should be done  at least most of the times  this is a bad design   I can speak only for myself  but if I downloaded an app that doesn t let me do something like clicking an OS button  the next thing I do is uninstall that app and leave a very bad review  I also believe that your app will not be featured on the App Store   Now     Notice that MX Player is asking permission to draw on top of other applications   Since you cannot override the Home button on Android device  at least no in the latest OS versions   MX Player draws itself on top of your launcher when you  lock  the app and clicks on the Home button   To see an example of that is a bit more simple and straight forward to understand  you can see the Facebook Messenger App   As I was asked to provide some more info about MX Player Status Bar and Navigation Bar  overriding   I m editing my answer to include these topics too   First thing first  MX Player is using Immersive Full-Screen Mode  DevBytes Video  on KitKat  Android 4 4  API Level 19  introduces a new SYSTEM UI FLAG IMMERSIVE flag for setSystemUiVisibility   that lets your app go truly  full screen   This flag  when combined with the SYSTEM UI FLAG HIDE NAVIGATION and SYSTEM UI FLAG FULLSCREEN flags  hides the navigation and status bars and lets your app capture all touch events on the screen   When immersive full-screen mode is enabled  your activity continues to receive all touch events  The user can reveal the system bars with an inward swipe along the region where the system bars normally appear  This clears the SYSTEM UI FLAG HIDE NAVIGATION flag  and the SYSTEM UI FLAG FULLSCREEN flag  if applied  so the system bars become visible  This also triggers your View OnSystemUiVisibilityChangeListener  if set  However  if you d like the system bars to automatically hide again after a few moments  you can instead use the SYSTEM UI FLAG IMMERSIVE STICKY flag  Note that the  sticky  version of the flag doesn t trigger any listeners  as system bars temporarily shown in this mode are in a transient state    Second  Hiding the Status Bar Third  Hiding the Navigation Bar Please note that although using immersive full screen is only for KitKat  hiding the Status Bar and Navigation Bar is not only for KitKat   I don t have much to say about the 2nd and 3rd  You get the idea I believe  it s a fast read in any case  Just make sure you pay close attention to View OnSystemUiVisibilityChangeListener   I added a Gist that explains what I meant  it s not complete and needs some fixing but you ll get the idea  https   gist github com Epsiloni 8303531  Good luck implementing this  and have fun

User · Answer

Refreshing an old topic  I was able to achieve that my activity does not fold when the home button  physical or virtual  is pressed  Here is my code for activity onCreate   method   super onCreate savedInstanceState           setContentView R layout activity alarm screen           context   getApplicationContext            int windowType          if  Build VERSION SDK INT gt  26  windowType   WindowManager LayoutParams TYPE APPLICATION OVERLAY          else windowType   WindowManager LayoutParams TYPE TOAST          final WindowManager LayoutParams params   new WindowManager LayoutParams                  windowType                  WindowManager LayoutParams FLAG TURN SCREEN ON                           WindowManager LayoutParams FLAG SHOW WHEN LOCKED                           WindowManager LayoutParams FLAG KEEP SCREEN ON                           WindowManager LayoutParams FLAG DISMISS KEYGUARD                           WindowManager LayoutParams FLAG FULLSCREEN                  PixelFormat TRANSLUCENT                    wm    WindowManager  getApplicationContext                    getSystemService Context WINDOW SERVICE            mTopView    ViewGroup  getLayoutInflater   inflate R layout activity alarm screen  null           getWindow   setAttributes params             Set up your views here         testView   mTopView findViewById R id test           wm addView mTopView  params     On API 26 and abovem you need to get screen overlay permission from the user  Tested on Android 7 and 8

User · Answer

You can disable the home and recents button Android 5 0  using the screen pinning feature mentioned here      Android 5 0 introduces a new screen pinning API that lets you   temporarily restrict users from leaving your task or being interrupted   by notifications  This could be used  for example  if you are   developing an education app to support high stakes assessment   requirements on Android  or a single-purpose or kiosk application    Once your app activates screen pinning  users cannot see   notifications  access other apps  or return to the home screen  until   your app exits the mode    You can lock the device down to be a kiosk  The navigation bar is not hidden  but the home and recents buttons can be either removed or disabled depending how you activate the mode  I wrote some information after testing this feature here

User · Answer

First create a method    public void hideNavigationBar             final View decorView   this getWindow   getDecorView            final int uiOptions                   View SYSTEM UI FLAG HIDE NAVIGATION                           View SYSTEM UI FLAG FULLSCREEN                           View SYSTEM UI FLAG LAYOUT FULLSCREEN                           View SYSTEM UI FLAG LAYOUT HIDE NAVIGATION                           View SYSTEM UI FLAG LAYOUT STABLE           Timer timer   new Timer            TimerTask task   new TimerTask                  Override             public void run                     YourActivityName this runOnUiThread new Runnable                          Override                     public void run                             decorView setSystemUiVisibility uiOptions                                                                                timer scheduleAtFixedRate task  1  2            Then you call it on onCreate   method of your activity  Call it again on the onResume   method  Then you may add another method in your activity like this    Override     public void onWindowFocusChanged boolean hasFocus            super onWindowFocusChanged hasFocus           hideNavigationBar            That will be it  Do remember it will lock the screen till the next time user touches the screen  in Timer class you can change the delay and it will allow you change things for that instance Then it will lock the screen again

User · Answer

You can t disable Home button from ICS onwords but can disable other buttons as follows   Override public boolean dispatchKeyEvent KeyEvent keyEvent      return true

User · Answer

Frankly it is not possible to disable the home button at least on new api levels   that is from 4 0 onwards  It is also not advisable to do that  You can however  block the back button by overriding the   public void onBackPressed            do not call super onBackPressed      in order to override the home button  you could use a timer for example  and after every time check if the main screen is your screen or not  or your package is on top or not   i am sure you will get links to it   and display your activity using the flag single top    That way   even if the home button is pressed you will be able to bring your app to the top    Also make sure that the app has a way to exit  because such kind of apps can really be annoying and should never be developed   Happy coding   P S  It is not possible to intercept the home event  when the home button is pressed   You can use on attach to window methods and also keyguard methods  but not for api levels from 4 0 onwards

User · Answer

You can use Android-HomeKey-Locker to disable HOME KEY and other system keys such as BACK KEY and MENU KEY   Hope this will help you in your application  Thanks

User · Answer

I too was searching for this for sometime  and finally was able to do it as I needed  ie Navigation Bar is inaccessible  status bar is inaccessible  even if you long press power button  neither the power menu nor navigation buttons are shown  Thanks to  Assaf Gamliel   his answer took me to the right path   I followed this tutorial with some slight modifications  While specifying Type  I specified WindowManager LayoutParams TYPE SYSTEM ERROR instead of WindowManager LayoutParams TYPE PHONE  else our  overlay  won t hide the system bars  You can play around with the Flags  Height  Width etc so that it ll behave as you want it to

User · Answer

I followed the shaobin0604 s answer and I finally managed to lock the HOME button  by adding    lt uses-permission android name  android permission SYSTEM ALERT WINDOW    gt    to AndroidManifest xml All you have to do is to copy HomeKeyLocker java from shaobin s lib to your project and implement it like in shaobin s example  BTW  My AVD s Android version is Android 4 0 3

User · Answer

Just a guess  but I think with the SYSTEM ALERT WINDOW permission  displayed as  Draw over other apps   see here  it could be possible  display your app as a fullscreen  system alert type window  This way it will hide any other apps  even the homescreen so if you press Home  it won t really be disabled  just without any visible effect   MX Player has this permission declared  and Facebook Messenger has it too for displaying  chat heads  over anything - so it might be the solution   Update  added from my comments   Next  use SYSTEM UI FLAG HIDE NAVIGATION in conjunction with capturing touch events using OnSystemUiVisibilityChangeListener to override the default behaviour  navbar appearing on touch   Also  since you said exit immersive gesture does not work  you could try setting SYSTEM UI FLAG IMMERSIVE STICKY too  with SYSTEM UI FLAG FULLSCREEN and SYSTEM UI FLAG HIDE NAVIGATION

User · Answer

i dont know how to diable home button  as long as my knowledge i got folowing link   refer the link - http   developer android com reference android view KeyEvent html KEYCODE HOME  Key code constant  Home key  This key is handled by the framework and is never delivered to applications   But we can diable back button  hope following code helps you out    Override public void onBackPressed           return nothing      return

User · Answer

Post ICS i e  Android 4   the overriding of the HomeButton has been removed for security reasons  to enable the user exit in case the application turns out to be a malware   Plus  it is not a really good practice to not let the user navigate away from the application  But  since you are making a lock screen application  what you can do is declare the activity as a Launcher   so that when the HomeButton is pressed it will simply restart your application and remain there itself  the users would notice nothing but a slight flicker in the screen    You can go through the following link   http   dharmendra4android blogspot in 2012 05 override-home-button-in-android html

User · Answer

Using rotation causes an exception  So I ve fixed my activity using this   HomeKeyLocker locker    Override protected void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState        super onCreate savedInstanceState        requestWindowFeature Window FEATURE NO TITLE       setContentView R layout activity splash        locker   new HomeKeyLocker                       locker lock this       Override protected void onSaveInstanceState Bundle savedInstanceState        super onSaveInstanceState savedInstanceState       locker unlock        Override public void onConfigurationChanged Configuration config        super onConfigurationChanged config       locker lock this       You will need to use the  L   Quang Duy suggestion

User · Answer

It used to be possible to disable the Home button  but now it isn t  It s due to malicious software that would trap the user   You can see more detailes here  Disable Home button in Android 4 0   Finally  the Back button can be disabled  as you can see in this other question  Disable back button in android

[android] How to disable Home and other system buttons in Android?

Examples related to android

Examples related to locking

Examples related to kiosk