Screens

Overview

In mobile app development, each screen represents a distinct interface within an app and serves as the canvas upon which the app's functionality is presented.

We recommend you spend some time sketching out or wireframing your app vision. This will ensure you have a good understanding of how many screens you need and how users will navigate between them.

Add a Screen to Your Project

There are two ways to add a new screen to your app.

A. Click the + icon next to your screen names in the screens bar.

B. Click the Create New Screen icon at the top of your component tree.

Duplicate Screens

Once you’ve perfected the design of a screen on the Design tab of a drag and drop project, you can duplicate it using copy-and-paste keyboard shortcuts.

To duplicate a screen within a project:

1. Select the screen in the Designer.

2. Click the vertical ellipsis at the top of the screen's properties pane.

3. Click Duplicate.

Another way to do it:

1. Click on a screen name in the component tree (A) or the screen itself within your workspace (B).

   
2. Type ctrl+c or command+c on Mac, or ctrl+c on PC, to copy the screen.

3. Type ctrl+v or command+v on Mac, or ctrl+v on PC, to paste a duplicate of the screen.

4. The new screen will be added to the right of the existing screen.

Creators on certain Thunkable plans can also save screens to reuse in other projects. You can learn more here: Save and Reuse Screens.

Screen Properties

Screen

Property	Value	Description
Scrollable	True/False	Allow the user to scroll on this screen.
Background Color	Color	Set the screen's background color.
Background Image	Image	Upload an image to be displayed in the screen's background. Accepted formats: PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, etc., or a URL that ends in a file extension (e.g. https://thunkable.com/static/media/logo.ba96eb83.png)
Background Image Resize Mode	cover, contain, stretch, repeat, or center	Set how the background image is shown if the image file and the screen have different dimensions/aspect ratios. See Picture Resize Mode below.
Orientation (iOS and Android only)	portrait, landscape, or auto	Define the screen's orientation.

Picture Resize Mode

• Center: The image is displayed at its original size within the container, and it is centered both vertically and horizontally. This means that if the image is larger than the container, parts of it may extend beyond the container's edges.

• Cover: The image is resized to completely cover the container while maintaining its aspect ratio. This mode ensures that the entire container is filled with the image, and any excess image parts are cropped if necessary. This can result in parts of the image being clipped.

• Contain: The image is resized to fit entirely within the container while maintaining its aspect ratio. This mode ensures that the entire image is visible within the container, and it may result in empty space around the image if the container's aspect ratio differs from the image's aspect ratio.

• Repeat: The image is tiled or repeated to fill the entire container, both horizontally and vertically. This mode is often used for creating patterns or backgrounds that seamlessly repeat across the container.

• Stretch: The image is resized to fully cover the container without maintaining its original aspect ratio. This can distort the image and may result in an unnatural appearance, so it's generally not recommended for most scenarios.

Video Tutorial

How to Save and Reuse Thunkable Screens

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create scrollable screens, which allow users to access a large amount of content within a confined screen space.

Screen-Specific Navigator Properties

Screens within a navigator have an additional section in the screen's properties panel for navigation options. You can learn more about these properties in the navigator docs.

Top Tab Navigator

Bottom Tab Navigator

Drawer Navigator

Stack Navigator

Status Bar

The status bar is located at the top of a phone's screen. The status bar displays information regarding signal strength, battery, and whether or not things like the alarm or Wi-Fi are enabled.

Property	Value	Description
Visibility	True/False	Set whether or not you want the status bar visible on the screen.
Style	default, light-content, or dark-content	Set whether the the app's appearance should be light or dark, or follow the device's settings (default). Default is recommended.
Color (Android only)	Color	Set the color of the status bar.
Translucent (Android only)	True/False	Set the translucency of the status bar. When set to true, the app's content behind the status bar is partially visible, giving the impression that the status bar is overlaid on top of the underlying screen content rather than fully opaque.

Screen Blocks

To access the blocks specific to a screen:

1. Navigate to the Blocks tab.

2. In the component tree on the left, click the name of the screen.

3. A drawer of screen-specific blocks opens.

Event Blocks

When Screen Opens

This event fires anytime the screen is opened.

When Screen Closes

This event fires when the screen closes.

When Screen Starts

This event fires when the screen is first opened.

When Screen1 BackButtonPressed

Fires when the physical or on-screen back button is pressed. (Android only)

Function Blocks

Call Screen's Toggle Drawer Menu

The "call screen's ToggleDrawerMenu" block is used in conjunction with the Drawer Navigator. It opens or closes the drawer menu, if available.

Properties Blocks

There are two types of property blocks: dark green "set" and light green "get" blocks. The specific blocks available vary according to the UI component.

The dark green set blocks allow you to change the component's properties using blocks. For example, if you don't want a group component to be enabled for a user until they've typed a set number of characters into a text input component, you can use the group's dark green set group's disabled status block.

The light green get blocks allow you to access the properties of a component (e.g. color, font, width, text, etc.).