Navigation and routing

Setup

To use the navigation library, add the following dependency to your commonMain source set:

Sample project

To see the Compose Multiplatform navigation library in action, check out the nav_cupcake project, which was converted from the Navigate between screens with Compose Android codelab.

Just as with Jetpack Compose, to implement navigation, you should:

1. List routes that should be included in the navigation graph. Each route must be a unique string that defines a path.

2. Create a NavHostController instance as your main composable property to manage navigation.

3. Add a NavHost composable to your app:

   1. Choose the starting destination from the list of routes you defined earlier.

   2. Create a navigation graph, either directly, as part of creating a NavHost, or programmatically, using the NavController.createGraph() function.

Each back stack entry (each navigation route included in the graph) implements the LifecycleOwner interface. A switch between different screens of the app makes it change its state from RESUMED to STARTED and back. RESUMED is also described as "settled": navigation is considered finished when the new screen is prepared and active. See the Lifecycle page for details of the current implementation in Compose Multiplatform.

Consider the following implementation aspects:

• The ViewModel factory allows creating ViewModel entities of the correct type on iOS and web.

• The ComposeViewModelStoreOwner class implements the ViewModelStoreOwner interface to provide a fallback for platforms other than Android and desktop.

• Compose Multiplatform string resources are used in place of Jetpack Compose resources.

Limitations

Current limitations of navigation in Compose Multiplatform, compared to Jetpack Compose:

• Deep links (handling or following them) are not supported.

• The BackHandler function and predictive back gestures are not supported on any platform besides Android.

Third-party alternatives

If the Compose Multiplatform navigation components do not solve your problems, there are third-party alternatives that you can choose from: