---
title: "Breadcrumbs"
description: "Learn more about what Sentry uses to create a trail of events (breadcrumbs) that happened prior to an issue."
url: https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/enriching-events/breadcrumbs/
---

# Breadcrumbs | Sentry for Android

##### Hey... did you mean Logs? Sentry has them now!

Manual breadcrumbs had a good run, but [Sentry's got logs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/logs.md). Structured, searchable, and way easier to alert or query on. Check them out!

Sentry uses *breadcrumbs* to create a trail of events that happened prior to an issue. These events are very similar to traditional logs, but can record more rich structured data.

This page provides an overview of manual breadcrumb recording and customization. Learn more about the information that displays on the **Issue Details** page and how you can filter breadcrumbs to quickly resolve issues in [Using Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/product/error-monitoring/breadcrumbs.md).

##### Learn about SDK usage

Developers who want to modify the breadcrumbs interface can learn more in our [developer documentation about the Breadcrumbs Interface](https://develop.sentry.dev/sdk/foundations/transport/event-payloads/breadcrumbs/).

## [Manual Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#manual-breadcrumbs)

You can manually add breadcrumbs whenever something interesting happens. For example, you might manually record a breadcrumb if the user authenticates or another state change occurs.

Manually record a breadcrumb:

```java
import io.sentry.Breadcrumb;
import io.sentry.Sentry;
import io.sentry.SentryLevel;

Breadcrumb breadcrumb = new Breadcrumb();
breadcrumb.setCategory("auth");
breadcrumb.setMessage("Authenticated user " + user.getEmail());
breadcrumb.setLevel(SentryLevel.INFO);
Sentry.addBreadcrumb(breadcrumb);
```

## [Automatic Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#automatic-breadcrumbs)

The Android SDK captures breadcrumbs automatically. To track automatic breadcrumbs for `HTTP` requests, check out the [OkHttp](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/integrations/okhttp.md) Interceptor for the [OkHttp](https://github.com/square/okhttp) library.

## [Customize Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#customize-breadcrumbs)

SDKs allow you to customize breadcrumbs through the `beforeBreadcrumb` hook.

This hook is passed an already assembled breadcrumb and, in some SDKs, an optional hint. The function can modify the breadcrumb or decide to discard it entirely by returning `null`:

```java
import io.sentry.android.core.SentryAndroid;

SentryAndroid.init(this, options -> {
  options.setBeforeBreadcrumb((breadcrumb, hint) -> {
    if ("a.spammy.Logger".equals(breadcrumb.getCategory())) {
      return null;
    } else {
      return breadcrumb;
    }
  });
});
```

## [Disable Automatic Breadcrumbs](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/enriching-events/breadcrumbs.md#disable-automatic-breadcrumbs)

If you want to disable the automatic collection of breadcrumbs, please add the following items into your manifest.

```xml
<application>
    <!-- To disable the activity lifecycle breadcrumbs integration -->
    <meta-data
    android:name="io.sentry.breadcrumbs.activity-lifecycle"
    android:value="false"
  />

    <!-- To disable the app lifecycle breadcrumbs integration -->
    <meta-data
    android:name="io.sentry.breadcrumbs.app-lifecycle"
    android:value="false"
  />

    <!-- To disable the system events breadcrumbs integration -->
    <meta-data
    android:name="io.sentry.breadcrumbs.system-events"
    android:value="false"
  />

    <!-- To disable the app components breadcrumbs integration -->
    <meta-data
    android:name="io.sentry.breadcrumbs.app-components"
    android:value="false"
  />

    <!-- To disable the user interaction breadcrumbs integration -->
    <meta-data
    android:name="io.sentry.breadcrumbs.user-interaction"
    android:value="false"
  />
</application>
```

For information about what can be done with the hint, see [Filtering Events](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/android/configuration/filtering.md#using-hints).