breadcrumbs - Is a back button a good idea for mobile?

Is a back button a good idea for mobile?

(Disregard breadcrumbs on mobile in the image - those are addressed here Breadcrumbs: OK to use on mobile site?)

Answer

The back button in apps depends largely on which platform you're developing for. Here's a few use cases.

Android phones typically have a soft key for the back button. The function is to go to the previous page. This is referred to as temporal navigation. According to the Android design principles, arrow in the action bar is to go one level up. This is referred to as hierarchal navigation. (http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html)

The back button is used for hierarchal navigation to go to where they came from. Definitely needed on most pages, since there's no other way for the user to go back to where he came from. (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/)