How to Implement Preferences Settings Screen in Android?

In many apps, we have seen the Settings screen which is most common in most of the apps. This settings screen is used to manage the preferences of the users. For creating this settings screen android provides a feature to make a settings preferences screen. In this article, we will take a look at implementing the preferences setting screen in Android. 

What we are going to build in this article? 

We will be building a simple application in which we will be displaying a simple button and on clicking on that button we will be opening a settings screen which we will create using settings preferences. This settings screen will look similar to what we can get to see in YouTube settings in the General option. A sample video is given below to get an idea about what we are going to do in this article. Note that we are going to implement this project using the Java language. 

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. Note that select Java as the programming language.

Step 2: Working with the activity_main.xml file

Navigate to the app > res > layout > activity_main.xml and add the below code to that file. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file. 

 
 

Step 3: Creating a new activity for displaying the settings screen

 

Navigate to the app > java > your app's package name > Right-click on it > New > Activity and select Empty activity and name it as SettingsActivity.

 

Step 4: Working with the MainActivity.java file 

 

Go to the MainActivity.java file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.java file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

 

 
 

Step 5: Creating a preference file for displaying our settings

 

Navigate to the app > res > Right-click on it > New > Android Resource file and you will get to see the below screen. 

 

👁 Image

 

Step 6: Add the below code in the strings.xml file

 

Navigate to the app > res > values > strings.xml file and add the below code to it. 

 

 
 

Step 7: Working with preferences.xml file

 

In preferences there are different types of preferences which are listed below : 

 

• EditTextPreference: this is used to get the text from the user.
• ListPreference: this option is used to display a dialog with the list of options to choose from.
• CheckBoxPreference: this option is used to display a checkbox to toggle a setting.
• SwitchPreference: this option is used to turn the switch on and off.
• RingtonePreference: this option is used to open the ringtone page of your device.
• Preference with an Intent action android.intent.action.VIEW – to open an external browser navigating to an URL.

 

Navigate to the app > res > xml > preferences.xml file and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in more detail.

 

 
 

Step 8: Now create a new java class for displaying our preference fragment

 

Navigate to the app > java > your app's package name > Right-click on it > New > Java class and name it as SettingsFragment and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in more detail. 

 

 
 

Step 9: Working with activity_settings.xml file

 

Navigate to the activity_settings.xml file and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in more detail. 

 

 
 

Step 10: Working with SettingsActivity.java file

 

Navigate to the app > java > your app's package name > SettingsActivity.java file and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in more detail. 

 

 
 

Now run your app and see the output of the app. 

 

Output: