Question

How can I have an activity return to another activity rather than the one called startactivity?

I have a game in which the user can select to play from a list of existing games or select to start a new game. When starting a new game, I’d like it when the user finishes his turn if the list of games becomes active rather than going back to activity to create a new game.

Among the various activities,

What it currently does:

 selectGames  
        playGame --- return to selectGames
           or
        createNewGame --- playGame --- return to createNewGame --- return to selectGames

I’d like it to:

 selectGames  
        playGame --- return to selectGames
           or
        createNewGame --- playGame --- return to selectGames

Is there a way to insert an intent or so that when starting an activity from createNewGame
the user can finish or pause the game and go back to selectGames? If intents are on the stack, I’d like to remove createNewGame from the stack of intents (does that makes sense?)

Answer 1

I believe adding android:noHistory to the createNewGame Activity in the manifest will accomplish what you want

From the docs:

android:noHistory

• Whether or not the activity should be removed from the activity stack and finished (its finish() method called) when the user navigates away from it and it’s no longer visible on screen — “true” if it should be finished, and “false” if not. The default value is “false”.
  A value of “true” means that the activity will not leave a historical trace. It will not remain in the activity stack for the task, so the user will not be able to return to it.
  This attribute was introduced in API Level 3.