Back button

Learn the back button and goBack.

The goBack function

To return from a screen to the previous one you call navigation.goBack(). This pops the top screen from the stack and shows the one below. In a stack navigator a back button usually appears automatically in the header.

Sometimes you want to place your own back button. You add a Button and call navigation.goBack() in its onPress handler. goBack takes no parameter; it always pops the top screen. If there is no screen to go back to, it does nothing.

Android hardware back button

Android devices have a physical or software back button. The stack navigator intercepts this button automatically and applies the goBack behavior; you do not need extra code. When the user presses back the previous screen appears.

If you need custom behavior on back (for example showing a warning about unsaved data), you can customize the button with useFocusEffect or BackHandler. At the beginner level the default behavior is sufficient for most cases.

Exercise Your turn: add a back button

Add a Button to the DetailsScreen component. When pressed it should call navigation.goBack(). Receive the navigation prop from the component parameters.

Show example solution

function DetailsScreen({ navigation }) {
  return (
    <View>
      <Text>Details screen</Text>
      <Button
        title="Back"
        onPress={() => navigation.goBack()}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

Test yourself

Match: function and effect

goBack

pops top screen
navigate

pushes new screen
popToTop

returns to start
What does navigation.goBack() do?
```
navigation.goBack()
```
- Restarts the app
- Pushes a new screen
- Pops the top screen from the stack
- Deletes all params
Show answer

Pops the top screen from the stack — goBack pops the top screen and returns to the previous one.
Fill in the blank: go back
```
navigation.____();
```
Show answer
```
navigation.goBack();
```

Next lesson: Summary - Navigation

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