Question

I have a TabHost holding 5 tabs.
As far as I can see, there has to be one tab selected at all times.

I need a way to unselect all my tabs so none will be selected.

If the tabhost is meant by general to have one tab selected at all times,
how can I make it appear (UI speaking) as if the tab isn’t selected?

Answer 1

This is not possible AFAIK. but yes,you can set the selected tab’s color to look like it is unselected and set a blank layout over it by managing a global variable when you make it ‘unselected’ and setting up normal layout when you want it to be shown normally to user. But this is kind of a trick.

Hope,you get my point!

EDIT :

Suppose you have set String what="disappear" somewhere in your code to show it ‘unselected’,then you can use this function to change color of tab:

Main.class:

//Change The Backgournd Color of Tabs
    public void setTabColor(TabHost tabhost) {


        for(int i=0;i<tabhost.getTabWidget().getChildCount();i++)
        {
                tabhost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(i).setBackgroundColor(Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF"))); //unselected white colored                   
        }

            if(!what.equals("disappear"))
                 tabhost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(tabhost.getCurrentTab()).setBackgroundColor(Color.parseColor("FF0000"))); // selected red colored

            else
                 tabhost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(tabhost.getCurrentTab()).setBackgroundColor(Color.parseColor("FFFFFF"))); // selected but show as unselected with white color


    }

And in your activity class(which is opened by that selected tab):

FirstActivity.class:

if(what.equals("disappear"))
      setContentView(R.layout.blank);
else
      setContentView(R.layout.first_layout);

blank.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent"
  android:orientation="vertical"
  android:id="@+id/layout"
  android:background="#ffffff"  
  android:gravity="center">
  <!-- You can make background transperent by setting it to "00ffffff" -->
  <!-- You can also add this textview to guide user -->
  <!--
      <TextView
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Click Any Tab To Start
         />
  -->
</LinearLayout>