Last Updated: February 25, 2016

Focus on Android layout xml

The following four properties determine where the focus will go when leaving an element using non touchscreen pointing devices like Google TVs.

android:nextFocusUp="some_element_id"
android:nextFocusDown="some_element_id"
android:nextFocusLeft="some_element_id"
android:nextFocusRight="some_element_id"

To set default focus add

<requestFocus />

as a child of the element that you want focused by default. This works just like calling requestFocus() on a View subclass in code.

Simple example:

 <ImageButton
 android:id="@+id/list_icon"
 android:layout_width="50dp"
 android:layout_height="50dp"
 android:layout_centerVertical="true"
 android:background="@drawable/button"
 android:contentDescription="@string/tooltip"
 android:scaleType="fitCenter"
 android:nextFocusUp="@+id/up_element"
 android:nextFocusDown="@+id/down_element"
 android:nextFocusLeft="@+id/left_element"
 android:nextFocusRight="@+id/right_element"
 android:src="@drawable/ic_action_list" >
 <requestFocus />
</ImageButton>

#layout.xml

#google tv

#android