My `WindowInsets` are going crazy, is anyone exper...

# compose-android

[Michael Marshall]

My WindowInsets are going crazy, is anyone experiencing the same thing? 😵 Why are my Scaffold content padding and status bar insets so big?? Here's a debug point values snapshot

ScaffoldContentPadding = {PaddingValuesImpl@41561} PaddingValues(start=0.0.dp, top=105.454544.dp, end=0.0.dp, bottom=104.0.dp)
WindowInsets.safeContent = {UnionInsets@41563} (((systemBars(0, 290, 0, 66) ∪ ime(0, 0, 0, 0)) ∪ displayCutout(0, 136, 0, 0)) ∪ (((tappableElement(0, 136, 0, 0) ∪ mandatorySystemGestures(0, 169, 0, 88)) ∪ systemGestures(82, 169, 82, 88)) ∪ waterfall(left=0, top=0, right=0, bottom=0)))
WindowInsets.safeDrawing = {UnionInsets@41564} ((systemBars(0, 290, 0, 66) ∪ ime(0, 0, 0, 0)) ∪ displayCutout(0, 136, 0, 0))
WindowInsets.safeGestures = {UnionInsets@41565} (((tappableElement(0, 136, 0, 0) ∪ mandatorySystemGestures(0, 169, 0, 88)) ∪ systemGestures(82, 169, 82, 88)) ∪ waterfall(left=0, top=0, right=0, bottom=0))

[Michael Marshall]

I'm using a Material 3 Scaffold for a screen within a Compose Navigation NavHost . I've set enableEdgeToEdge() in my activity onCreate.

Initially I was getting 0 for all WindowsInsets values on the screen Compose code, until I forced the configuration to update by rotating my Pixel 5 device from portrait to landscape (and back again). This seems like a bug?
Anyway, I somehow fixed that by forcing the insets to be fetched immediately:

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        installSplashScreen()

        enableEdgeToEdge()

        // We don't use any theme XML files, so we need to hide this here
        actionBar?.hide()

        setContent {
            // Some buggy nonsense in insets going on. Without this (to shock em awake?) all insets are 0 until a configuration change...
            WindowInsets.safeContent

            MyTheme {
                MainScreen()
            }
        }
    }
}

But now I have the insets too big issue as above 🙃

My Compose version "1.7.5", but I've also tried it on "1.7.0".

[Stylianos Gakis]

What does actionBar?.hide() do there?
What is your root theme of your app? Why not do something like Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar so that you get no action bar at all in the first place?

[Michael Marshall]

I've attempted to remove all the theming XML files and use Compose only as far as I can, so that was a work around for the action bar which is there by default. It's not ideal, but do you think it's actually causing the problem?

[Stylianos Gakis]

What is the problem in the first place exactly?

[Stylianos Gakis]

I've attempted to remove all the theming XML files and use Compose only as far as I can

Sure, but you should still set some things in your xml. You can't get around that, compose is not initialized on the very first frames, like when the splash screen is showing for example

[Stylianos Gakis]

You can use NiA as an inspiration on what you must still define even in a compose only app https://github.com/android/nowinandroid/blob/main/app/src/main/res/values/themes.xml

[Michael Marshall]

Here's a screenshot, the padding is too big above my content

Scaffold(
        bottomBar = {
            MyNavigationBar(
                selectedTab = MainTab.ChatList,
                selectTab = navigateToTab,
            )
        },
    ) { contentPadding ->
        LazyColumn(
            modifier = Modifier
                .statusBarsPadding() // This adds the huge gap
                .fillMaxSize(),
            contentPadding = contentPadding.copy(top = 0.dp),
        ) {
            // my list content is in here
        }
    }

[Michael Marshall]

Yeah I've still got the theming for the Splash screen

[Michael Marshall]

Okay copying NIA exactly fixed the actionBar sized additional padding I was seeing. I'm still not sure I understand why the action Bar is considered part of the WindowInsets

[Stylianos Gakis]

Me neither, but I can't say I've seen an ActionBar in an Android app for like 10 years now 😅

[Michael Marshall]

Yeah it's kinda lame that it's there by default still

[Michael Marshall]

Somehow this also fixed my initial issue that insets were 0 without a configuration change first blob shrug thank you friend

[efemoney]

> I can’t say I’ve seen an ActionBar in an Android app for like 10 years now
Because (almost) everyone uses Theme.xxx.NoActionBar or some descendant 🙂.

Android has evolved a lot but there was/is a feature where System UI draws the “action bar” for your app. Obvsly that would go into insets if you had something like fitsSystemWindows turned on (because the action bar is technically provided by the system)

For anyone else checking this out, to configure an android app (or particular activity) to handle insets for the best experience (as of Nov 2024) you need to:
• Set the application / specific activity theme to some xxx.NoActionBar descendant
• Set android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize" on the activity in the manifest
• On the activity, using androidx activity-ktx , call enableEdgeToEdge(...)
• Within compose hierarchy, use the insets API.