feat(Android, Tabs): handle preventing tab change on Android

[kligarski]

Description

Allows preventing tab change on Android. Previously, bottom navigation bar would be desynchronized with shown tab screen (menu item would change even if tab screen would not).

before	after
Screen_recording_20251028_110806.mp4	Screen_recording_20251028_110431.mp4

Important

Due to changes in this PR, tab change behaves differently when tab screens are heavy.

before	after
Screen_recording_20251028_111634.mp4	Screen_recording_20251028_111759.mp4

This matches behavior on iOS but I'm not sure if this is something we want.

Screen.Recording.2025-10-28.at.11.24.49.mov

Closes https://github.com/software-mansion/react-native-screens-labs/issues/561.

Changes

• add menuItemSelectedViaContainerUpdate to differentiate between user menu item taps and updates from JS
• allow item selection only if menuItemSelectedViaContainerUpdate, otherwise just send event to JS

Test code and steps to reproduce

Run TestBottomTabs. Apply this patch to BottomTabsContainer to simulate preventing tab change to Tab4:

Patch

diff --git a/apps/src/shared/gamma/containers/bottom-tabs/BottomTabsContainer.tsx b/apps/src/shared/gamma/containers/bottom-tabs/BottomTabsContainer.tsx
index 7bba66b48..5f535c945 100644
--- a/apps/src/shared/gamma/containers/bottom-tabs/BottomTabsContainer.tsx
+++ b/apps/src/shared/gamma/containers/bottom-tabs/BottomTabsContainer.tsx
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ export function BottomTabsContainer(props: BottomTabsContainerProps) {
     (event: NativeSyntheticEvent<NativeFocusChangeEvent>) => {
       const tabKey = event.nativeEvent.tabKey;
 
+      if (tabKey === 'Tab4') {
+        return;
+      }
+
       // Use `startTransition` only if the state is controlled in JS
       // const transitionFn = !configWrapper.config.controlledBottomTabs
       //   ? startTransition

Try to select tab4.

Checklist

• Included code example that can be used to test this change
• Ensured that CI passes

[kmichalikk]

Can we call it in updateSelectedTab instead of updateBottomNavigationViewAppearance? It would be a bit more logical there, or these 2 are not always called together ?

[kligarski]

I thought about it as well but I think on Android managing BottomNavigationView and shown screens/fragments is separated and those methods reflect that. Maybe we should think about renaming those methods though.

[kmichalikk]

Am I missing something, or is this supposed to not be triggered when controlledBottomTabs=false, but it is? Also IMO the name is a bit unclear.

[kligarski]

On Android, only controlled bottom tabs are currently supported.

I did use viaContainerUpdate name because I guess that there is a possibility to call container update from native code, not only as a result of JS focused tab change. I can maybe reverse the logic and use menuItemSelectedByUser or something like this but I'm not sure.