Changing position of Android Action Bar

Question

I am currently changing my android app so that it supports the action bar as stated by the android development guidelines.

I've successfully created the action bar and added, what were my menu buttons to the action bar. However, the action bar is being squished up at the top next to the program name icon and instead I want to show the action bar at the bottom of the screen.

Is there a way of changing the position of the action bar? I've tried doing a Google search and looking at the dev guide, but haven't found anything.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

Not really. And Google heavily frowns on action bars at the bottom of the screen. They will not feature your application if the action bar is anywhere but where they want it.

Answer 2

According to the Layout Considerations, the ActionBar is supposed to be at the top of the screen to consistently display the app "branding" and "prominent functions" of an app. For eg: Search, Logout, etc. The bottom part of the screen is meant to show Context Menu which typically is shown when you press the "Menu" key on the device.

However, take a look at "Layout Considerations for Split Action Bars" in the above link which shows the possibility of a bottom bar to display "actions".