I managed to use

Espresso.pressBack()

to restore the activity to its main screen. Probably I should be navigating using my NavHost within my tests?

Internally it’s using ActivityScenarioRule which calls close on the secnario in the after phase.

So when the next test starts with

composeTestRule.setContent {
    MainNavHost()
}

the activity is brought to front with the content which was there at the end of first test.