This contains the navigation id that pushed the history record that the router navigates back to. This is not null only when the navigation is triggered by a popstate event.
The router assigns a navigationId to every router transition/navigation. Even when the user clicks on the back button in the browser, a new navigation id will be created. So from the perspective of the router, the router never "goes back". By using the restoredState and its navigationId, you can implement behavior that differentiates between creating new states and popstate events. In the latter case you can restore some remembered state (e.g., scroll position).