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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T16:21:39+00:00

I’ve created a search activity in my app, in the standard Android way, without

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I’ve created a search activity in my app, in the standard Android way, without custom suggestions. When a user starts typing text or presses the search button, they get a search dialog with search box, something like figure 1 from here:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/search/search-dialog.html

You’ll notice in the background is the previous activity, the words “abide”, etc.

My problem is that the previous activity is shown clear as day behind the search dialog, and its confusing for users, because users think all that is still active, and they try to press on it, but it just cancels the search dialog. And it distracts the user from the search task (are those search results, they may wonder?).

Question: how to blur (make out of focus) or darken the previous activity?
I actually see this in some app’s search screens.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I found a simple way to blur the background of the search dialog:

    Basically it’s just adding a (half) transparent view over the ListView (or what is under the dialog) and hide it by default. If the search dialog appears (calling onSearchRequested()) it is set to visible, if it disappears it’s set back to gone (invisible).

    Check out the details at my blog: http://mavistechchannel.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/blur-background-android-search-dialog/

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