I’m developing an App in iPhone and a version for Android.
The iPhone version of the App uses a Tabbar on the bottom of the screen (for other screens / ViewControllers: Home, Favorites, Search in a list, …).
I want to make the layout of the 2 versions of the App (the one for iPhone and the one for Android) the same as much as possible according to the best layout guidelines.
Android App’s usually uses not a tabbar, but it’s with a SubMenu. But, I find more an more Android App’s that uses a tabbar at the bottom of the screen in stead of a submenu for handling this. I know that a TabBar on the bottom of the screen is not usual for an Android App and may seem strange for those users.
So, what I want to know is may it be OK to use a tabbar like iPhone at the bottom of the screen, or is it NOT DONE for Android? (Also according to screen use optimalisation and the android UI patern guidelines : by this I mean uses the mast of the screen for the App itself and not for navigating through the App).
The equivalent Android pattern for the ‘Tabbar’ is ‘ActionBar’, you can find more information on this widely-used pattern here: Android Patterns – ActionBar