What Are the Different Types of Bars Available in Android?

Android offers a wide range of User Interface (UI) elements, including various types of bars that enhance navigation and interaction with the user. Each bar serves a specific purpose, from displaying information to providing interactive controls. Let's explore the key types of bars used in Android applications.

1. Status Bar
2. Action Bar/Toolbar/App Bar
3. Bottom Navigation Bar
4. Progress Bar
5. Seekbar
6. Snackbar
7. RatingBar

1. Status Bar

The Status Bar is located at the top of the screen and displays essential system information. It typically shows icons for WIFI, battery level, notifications, time, and more. This is provided by the system; the app does not directly manipulate the contents of this bar. 

Note: According to Google Material Design Principles; the height of the status bar is 24dp.

Key Features:

1. Can be accessed system-wide, not specific to individual apps.
2. The theme can be customized by developers for individual apps.
3. Supports full screen mode.

Below is a sample image to show where the status bar is present on an android device.

2. Action Bar/Toolbar/App Bar

The action bar (or Toolbar, also referred to as the app bar), if it exists for an activity, will be at the top of the activity's content area, typically directly underneath the status bar. It is a menu bar that runs across the top of the activity screen in android. In general, an Action Bar has the following features:

• Displays the app's title, navigation buttons, and action items.
• Supports menus and search functions.
• Can be customized for different themes and layouts.

Major Differences between Action Bar and Toolbar:

1. Toolbar (introduced in Android Lollipop, API 21) is more flexible and can be positioned anywhere in the layout.
2. Action Bar is part of the app's default theme and appears at the top.

To know more about the differences, refer to Difference Between AppBar, ActionBar, and Toolbar in Android.

Below is a sample image to show where the Action Bar/Toolbar/App Bar is present on an android device.

3. Bottom Navigation Bar

The Bottom Navigation Bar is an UI component in Android that allows users to navigate between different app screens by tapping on the icons at the bottom of the screen. Developers can customize the icons, text labels, and background color. It supports Material Design guidelines for animations and transitions. It can be combined with badges to display notifications. Common Applications:

• Social media apps for switching between feeds, notifications, and user profiles.
• E-commerce apps for navigation between categories, cart, and account sections.
• Entertainment apps for accessing playlists, downloads, and recommendations.

Below is a sample image to show where the Bottom Navigation Bar is implemented in an android app.

4. Progress Bar

Android ProgressBar is a UI control that shows the progress of an operation. For example, downloading a file, uploading a file on the internet one can see the progress bar to view the time remaining in operation.

There are two types of Progress bar:

• Horizontal Progress Bar: Displays progress as a filled portion of a horizontal bar.
• Circular Progress Bar: Shows progress in a circular shape.

There are two modes of Progress Bar:

• Determinate ProgressBar: In general, we use the Determinate progress mode in the progress bar because it displays the amount of progress that has happened like the (%) percentage of the file downloaded, how much data uploaded or downloaded on the internet, etc.
• Indeterminate ProgressBar: Here, we don’t get the idea of the progress of work means how much it has been completed or How long it will take to complete.

Below is a sample image of how the progress bar looks like.

5. Seekbar

Android Seekbar is a revised version of progress bar that has a draggable thumb in which the users can drag the thumb back and forth to set the current progress value.
Common Applications are:

• Media players for controlling playback position.
• Volume controls.
• Brightness adjustment.

It is one of the essential UI elements that provides the option to choose the integer values within the defined range like 1 to 100. By dragging the thumb in SeekBar, we can slide back and forth to choose a value between the minimum and maximum integer value which we defined using the android:min and the android:max attributes. respectively.

Below is a sample image of how the Seek Bar looks like.

6. Snackbar

A Snackbar is a lightweight and temporary message that appears at the bottom of the screen to inform users of events or actions. Having a CoordinatorLayout in the view hierarchy provides Snackbar to facilitate specific features, such as swipe-to-dismiss and automatically moving of widgets.

Snackbar is similar to Toast but the only significant difference is that an action can be added with Snackbar.

Below is a sample GIF of how the Snackbar looks like.

7. RatingBar

Android RatingBar is a UI widget that is used to get the rating from the customers or users. It is an extension of SeekBar and ProgressBar that shows star ratings and it allows users to give the rating by choosing the number of stars.

Attributes:

1. android:stepSize: We can establish the step size, and it will always return a rating value as a floating-point number such as 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, etc.
2. android:numStars: By using this, one can define the number of stars in RatingBar.

Key Features:

• Supports fractional star ratings.
• Can be made interactive or read-only.

Common Applications:

• Feedback forms in apps.
• Product rating systems in e-commerce apps.

Below is a sample image of how the RatingBar looks like.