BottomNavigation.md

Bottom Navigation

Bottom navigation bars allow movement between primary destinations in an app.

Contents

• Design and API Documentation
• Using bottom navigation
• Bottom navigation bar
• Theming

Design and API Documentation

• Google Material3 Spec
• API Reference

Using bottom navigation

Before you can use the Material bottom navigation, you need to add a dependency to the Material Components for Android library. For more information, go to the Getting started page.

A typical layout looks like this:

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
  ...
  <com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView
      android:id="@+id/bottom_navigation"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      app:menu="@menu/bottom_navigation_menu" />

</LinearLayout>

The @menu/bottom_navigation_menu resource should point to a file named bottom_navigation_menu.xml inside a menu resource directory:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item
      android:id="@+id/item_1"
      android:enabled="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/icon_1"
      android:title="@string/text_label_1"/>
  <item
      android:id="@+id/item_2"
      android:enabled="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/icon_2"
      android:title="@string/text_label_2"/>
</menu>

Note: BottomNavigationView does not support more than 5 menu items.

In code:

NavigationBarView.OnItemSelectedListener { item ->
    when(item.itemId) {
        R.id.item_1 -> {
            // Respond to navigation item 1 click
            true
        }
        R.id.item_2 -> {
            // Respond to navigation item 2 click
            true
        }
        else -> false
    }
}

There's also a method for detecting when navigation items have been reselected:

bottomNavigation.setOnItemReselectedListener { item ->
    when(item.itemId) {
        R.id.item_1 -> {
            // Respond to navigation item 1 reselection
        }
        R.id.item_2 -> {
            // Respond to navigation item 2 reselection
        }
    }
}

That results in:

Note: We have deprecated the BottomNavigationView#setOnNavigationItemSelectedListener and BottomNavigationView#setOnNavigationItemReselectedListener methods in favor of the listeners in NavigationBarView. This allows you to share selection handling code between the BottomNavigation and NavigationRail view elements.

Making bottom navigation accessible

You should set an android:title for each of your menu items so that screen readers like TalkBack can properly announce what each navigation item represents:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item
      ...
      android:title="@string/text_label"/>
  ...
</menu>

The labelVisibilityMode attribute can be used to adjust the behavior of the text labels for each navigation item. There are four visibility modes:

• LABEL_VISIBILITY_AUTO (default): The label behaves as “labeled” when there are 3 items or less, or “selected” when there are 4 items or more
• LABEL_VISIBILITY_SELECTED: The label is only shown on the selected navigation item
• LABEL_VISIBILITY_LABELED: The label is shown on all navigation items
• LABEL_VISIBILITY_UNLABELED: The label is hidden for all navigation items

Adding badges

Initialize and show a BadgeDrawable associated with menuItemId, subsequent calls to this method will reuse the existing BadgeDrawable:

var badge = bottomNavigation.getOrCreateBadge(menuItemId)
badge.isVisible = true
// An icon only badge will be displayed unless a number or text is set:
badge.number = 99  // or badge.text = "New"

As a best practice, if you need to temporarily hide the badge, for instance until the next notification is received, change the visibility of BadgeDrawable:

val badgeDrawable = bottomNavigation.getBadge(menuItemId)
    if (badgeDrawable != null) {
        badgeDrawable.isVisible = false
        badgeDrawable.clearNumber()  // or badgeDrawable.clearText()
    }

To remove any BadgeDrawables that are no longer needed:

bottomNavigation.removeBadge(menuItemId)

See the BadgeDrawable documentation for more information about badges.

Bottom navigation bar

Bottom navigation bar example

API and source code:

• BottomNavigationView
  • Class description
  • Class source

The following example shows a bottom navigation bar with four icons:

In layout.xml:

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

  <com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView
      android:id="@+id/bottom_navigation"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      app:menu="@menu/bottom_navigation_menu" />

</LinearLayout>

In bottom_navigation_menu.xml inside a menu resource directory:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item
      android:id="@+id/page_1"
      android:enabled="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_star"
      android:title="@string/page_1"/>
  <item
      android:id="@+id/page_2"
      android:enabled="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_star"
      android:title="@string/page_2"/>
  <item
      android:id="@+id/page_3"
      android:enabled="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_star"
      android:title="@string/page_3"/>
  <item
      android:id="@+id/page_4"
      android:enabled="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_star"
      android:title="@string/page_4"/>
</menu>

In code:

bottomNavigation.selectedItemId = R.id.page_2

Anatomy and key properties

The following is an anatomy diagram for the bottom navigation bar:

• (1) Container
• (2) Icon
• (3) Label text
• (4) Active indicator
• (5) Small badge (optional)
• (6) Large badge (optional)
• (7) Large badge number

Container attributes

Element	Attribute	Related methods	Default value
Color	app:backgroundTint	N/A	?attr/colorSurfaceContainer
Elevation	app:elevation	setElevation	3dp
Compat Shadow	compatShadowEnabled	N/A	false

Navigation item attributes

Element	Attribute	Related methods	Default value
Menu resource	app:menu	inflateMenu getMenu	N/A
Ripple (inactive)	app:itemRippleColor	setItemRippleColor getItemRippleColor	Variations of ?attr/colorPrimary and ?attr/colorOnSurfaceVariant (see all states)
Ripple (active)	"	"	Variations of ?attr/colorPrimary (see all states)
Label visibility mode	app:labelVisibilityMode	setLabelVisibilityMode getLabelVisibilityMode	LABEL_VISIBILITY_AUTO

Icon attributes

Element	Attribute	Related methods	Default value
Icon	android:icon in the menu resource	N/A	N/A
Size	app:itemIconSize	setItemIconSize setItemIconSizeRes getItemIconSize	24dp
Color (inactive)	app:itemIconTint	setItemIconTintList getItemIconTintList	?attr/colorOnSurfaceVariant (see all states)
Color (active)	"	"	?attr/colorOnSecondaryContainer (see all states)
Gravity	app:itemIconGravity	setItemIconGravity getItemIconGravity	TOP

Text label attributes

Element	Attribute	Related methods	Default value
Text label	android:title in the menu resource	N/A	N/A
Color (inactive)	app:itemTextColor	setItemTextColor getItemTextColor	?attr/colorOnSurfaceVariant (see all states)
Color (active)	"	"	?attr/colorOnSurface (see all states)
Typography (inactive)	app:itemTextAppearanceInactive	setItemTextAppearanceInactive getItemTextAppearanceInactive	?attr/textAppearanceTitleSmall
Typography (active)	app:itemTextAppearanceActive	setItemTextAppearanceActive getItemTextAppearanceActive	?attr/textAppearanceTitleSmall
Typography (active)	app:itemTextAppearanceActiveBoldEnabled	setItemTextAppearanceActiveBoldEnabled	true

Styles

Element	Style	Container color	Icon/Text label color (inactive)	Icon/Text label color (active)
Default style	Widget.Material3.BottomNavigationView	?attr/colorSurface	?attr/colorOnSurfaceVariant	Icon: ?attr/colorOnSecondaryContainer Text: ?attr/colorOnSurface

Default style theme attribute: ?attr/bottomNavigationStyle

See the full list of styles, navigation bar attributes, and bottom navigation attributes.

Theming a bottom navigation bar

Bottom navigation supports Material Theming, which can customize color and typography.

Bottom navigation theming example

API and source code:

• BottomNavigationView
  • Class description
  • Class source

The following example shows a bottom navigation bar with Material Theming.

Implementing bottom navigation theming

Use theme attributes and a style in res/values/styles.xml, which applies to all bottom navigation bars and affects other components:

<style name="Theme.App" parent="Theme.Material3.*">
    ...
    <item name="colorSurface">@color/shrine_theme_light_surface</item>
    <item name="colorOnSurfaceVariant">@color/shrine_theme_light_onSurfaceVariant</item>
</style>

Use a default style theme attribute, styles, and a theme overlay, which apply to all bottom navigation bars but do not affect other components:

<style name="Theme.App" parent="Theme.Material3.*">
    ...
    <item name="bottomNavigationStyle">@style/Widget.App.BottomNavigationView</item>
</style>

<style name="Widget.App.BottomNavigationView" parent="Widget.Material3.BottomNavigationView">
    <item name="materialThemeOverlay">@style/ThemeOverlay.App.BottomNavigationView</item>
</style>

<style name="ThemeOverlay.App.BottomNavigationView" parent="">
    <item name="colorSurface">@color/shrine_theme_light_surface</item>
    <item name="colorOnSurfaceVariant">@color/shrine_theme_light_onSurfaceVariant</item>
</style>

Use the style in the layout, which affects only this specific bottom navigation bar:

<com.google.android.material.bottomnavigation.BottomNavigationView
    ...
    style="@style/Widget.App.BottomNavigationView"
/>