Can I change the Android startActivity() transition animation?

Question

I am starting an activity and would rather have a alpha fade-in for startActivity(), and a fade-out for the finish(). How can I go about this in the Android SDK?

Answer 1

In the same statement in which you execute finish(), execute your animation there too. Then, in the new activity, run another animation. See this code:

fadein.xml

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
     android:fillAfter="true">
     <alpha android:fromAlpha="1.0" 
            android:toAlpha="0.0"
            android:duration="500"/> //Time in milliseconds
</set>

In your finish-class

private void finishTask() {
    if("blabbla".equals("blablabla"){
        finish();
        runFadeInAnimation();
    }
}

private void runFadeInAnimation() {
    Animation a = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(this, R.anim.fadein);
    a.reset();
    LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.yourviewhere);
    ll.clearAnimation();
    ll.startAnimation(a);   
}

fadeout.xml

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
           android:fillAfter="true">
  <alpha android:fromAlpha="0.0"
         android:toAlpha="1.0"
         android:duration="500"/>
</set>

In your new Activity-class you create a similiar method like the runFadeAnimation I wrote and then you run it in onCreate and don't forget to change the resources id to fadeout.