The Action Bar

With the transition from Android 2.3 to 3.0, Google has eliminated both the search button and the menu key. From personal experience, I can tell you that many new users never find functionality that is placed in the options menu. Its removal from the system is, indeed, a very good thing.

Google, bless their expensive cotton socks, has moved the icons that used to reside in the options menu to the action bar. Further, you can specify a search view in the action bar (to replace the search button). This takes up more screen space, but on a tablet (and on later phones), there is more than enough space to go around.

The action bar now represents the primary way your users will navigate through your Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich application. Sadly, this new tool is available only through versions 3.0 (target 11) or later. It would require a fair amount of typing, but it’s very possible to emulate the action bar on earlier systems by using a simple linear layout and a few image views. You are, however, on your own to implement it. There is no support for the action bar in the compatibility library.