How to automate the android phone back button using appium

Question

I am working on test automation for a hybrid mobile application on Android using Appium(python client library). I haven't been able to figure out any means to automate or create a gesture for using the Phone back button to go back to the previous page of the app. Is there any driver function that can be used? I tried my luck with self.driver.navigate().back() [hoping this would simulate the same behaviour as in Selenium to navigate to the previous URL] but to no avail. Can anyone suggest a way out?

Answer 1

Yes,try the driver.back(), it simulates the system back function.

Answer 2

I guess maybe it depends on what version of the client library are you using because in Java driver.navigate().back() works well.

Answer 3

Recently I was automating one of the Native application where I had to click on back button.

I tried below code and it worked for me.

Code for Android back button.

driver.pressKeyCode(AndroidKeyCode.BACK);

This will click on back button