Easy way to hide system bar on Android ICS

Asked 4/5, 2012 at 8:16 Answered 16/3, 2015 at 14:57

Solved android fullscreen android-4.0-ice-cream-sandwich kiosk-mode

I will give my ICS tablets for users to complete a survey so I would like the user to work with my app only. They should not be able to switch to the home screen, press back buttons etc., so I would like to hide the system bar completely.

My tablet is rooted and I know some application like this can help me, but I don't need all the extra functions of this app.

I found this tutorial that could help me, but if I can add the code to do my own, it would be great.

Yarkand answered 4/5, 2012 at 8:16 Comment(0)

HideBar has a kiosk mode especially for this use case.

A free download is available at http://ppareit.github.com/HideBar/. You can also find it in the market at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.ppareit.hidebar.

If you want to incorporate it in your own test/survey application you can always contact the developer (see the links for an email). The code could be explained or an Intent to do the hiding could be provided.

Aleydis answered 18/8, 2012 at 17:32 Comment(1)

This is great app. Although I finished the survey app but I can use this app again in the near future. github.com/ppareit/HideBar/blob/master/src/be/ppareit/hidebar/… – Yarkand 20/8, 2012 at 16:7

After a lot of searching on the internet, I managed to get the System Bar to hide and appear in a 4.2 device using:

To Hide:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("service call activity 42 s16 com.android.systemui");

Or use 79 instead of 42 for API less than 14. You may also need to include the SET_DEBUG_APP permission, in which case you need to have the application signed with the system key or installed in the /system/app/ directory.

To Show:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("am startservice --user 0 -n com.android.systemui/.SystemUIService");

Alternatively some people have used the -a (instead of -n) option, though this was causing an error on my device:

Error: Not found; no service started.

For Android 4.4, there is a new feature called immersive mode which hides both the system and status bars. The system UI is toggled by the user through the use of an edge swipe from the top or bottom of the screen. For more details take a look at:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#setSystemUiVisibility(int)

Using new IMMERSIVE mode in android kitkat

For example:

getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(
          View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE)

Schug answered 15/10, 2013 at 4:50 Comment(5)

Did you find how to do this on KitKat? It was working perfectly for the devices i tested before kitkat – Sian 19/2, 2014 at 9:43

@Sian You can make use of the new immersive mode available in 4.4. Otherwise you may need to find the new service ID for the system UI (42 in 4.2 and 4.3). – Schug 19/2, 2014 at 19:48

Yeah i figured you might have it since you probably use this code. any idea how to get the service id? I cannot use immersive mode because i need kiosk without ever showing the bars. swiping to show them doesn't work for me, if there is a way to password protect that that also might work but so far i wasn't able to find anything. thanks for your assistance – Sian 19/2, 2014 at 20:30

@Sian did you find out how to hide the bar for a kiosk? Please share if you can. – Darter 1/8, 2014 at 5:24

Thank you! This does work on My Device!!! android 4.1.2. I was still thinking how to hide the bar automatically after boot. – Savate 17/10, 2014 at 2:45

HideBar has a kiosk mode especially for this use case.

A free download is available at http://ppareit.github.com/HideBar/. You can also find it in the market at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.ppareit.hidebar.

Aleydis answered 18/8, 2012 at 17:32 Comment(1)

This is great app. Although I finished the survey app but I can use this app again in the near future. github.com/ppareit/HideBar/blob/master/src/be/ppareit/hidebar/… – Yarkand 20/8, 2012 at 16:7

check this link: (requires root) http://android.serverbox.ch/?p=306

or try HideBar http://ppareit.github.com/HideBar/

Actually you can simply put the system bar in "lights out" mode, the system bar buttons and notifications gets dimmed.

View v = findViewById(R.id.view_id);
v.setSystemUiVisibility(View.STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN);

Curly answered 4/5, 2012 at 8:30 Comment(2)

thanks for you answer. The solutions in your three links applied for Android 3.0 only. The device is mine and I rooted it. – Yarkand 4/5, 2012 at 9:33

if user touch on the screen, system bar will turn on again :) – Yarkand 4/5, 2012 at 9:36

I want to add some information to the existing replies hoping it will be useful for someone.

To get a real full screen working on my low cost China tablets I need to edit a file located in

system/build.prop

replace the text

ro.property.tabletUI=true

with

#ro.property.tabletUI=true

(I comment the line). After that, I can get a full screen using

android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"

for each activity in the minfest.xml

This solution Is good only if you sell tablets with your application and needs root privileges to edit the system/build.prop. So it's not a solution for all, so please do not downvote this little contribute.

EDIT: I noticed that my tablets have hardware buttons (Home, menù and back) on the frames. So Android lets me to hide the system bar. I tryed with other tablets that haven't hardware buttons without success.

Adama answered 6/5, 2013 at 15:7 Comment(2)

I tried your method and I get an "Unfortunately, System UI has stopped." warning on bootup. the system bar is removed after this, but is there anyway to prevent this error from popping up? – Chequer 4/9, 2013 at 15:22

@Chequer This error says that you can't use this solution for the Android build of your device without touching something else, sorry. – Strophe 14/5, 2014 at 15:7

Google intends Android to be used for consumers only. They integrated the System UI bar more tightly into Android ICS (4.0) to prevent people from rooting the device and killing the bar that way. Attempting to delete the system bar process will prevent the OS from booting fully.

If you want to restrict users from accessing the home screen, then you are out of luck with Android ICS. I would suggest finding a tablet manufacture who will preload the device with Android 2.3. Either that, or use a rooted Android 3.x device.

If you intend to use Android for kiosk or locked down devices, then you would be better off targeting an OS that is a bit more open.

Gooseberry answered 8/6, 2012 at 19:28 Comment(1)

thank for answering. I have leave this issue since it take me time. User the play.google.com/store/apps/… is good enough for me :) – Yarkand 12/6, 2012 at 16:13

I found a solution that, in my use case, works like a charm by hiding the menu bar even on a NOT ROOTED device:

setting this flag

layoutparams.flags = 0x80000000 | layoutparams.flags;

to my window's layout parameters simply does the trick!

Here's the complete snippet i used:

    Window window = getWindow();
    android.view.WindowManager.LayoutParams layoutparams = window.getAttributes();
    layoutparams.flags = 0x80000000 | layoutparams.flags;
    window.setAttributes(layoutparams);

in my Activity onCreate.

To find out this I reverse engeneered a non-system Apk I found that was somehow able to do that.

According to the official documentation:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/WindowManager.LayoutParams.html#FLAG_DRAWS_SYSTEM_BAR_BACKGROUNDS

that "0x80000000" is the FLAG_DRAWS_SYSTEM_BAR_BACKGROUNDS introduced as a system constant in Api level 21, and it basically indicates that "this Window is responsible for drawing the background for the system bars." and since i'm not manually drawing any system bar, no menu bar is shown.

I only tested this on a pair of Moverio BT-200 running Android ICS 4.0.3 because that is the device i'm currently working on and also because right now i don't have other device running Api levels prior to 19 under my hands to test it.

Bulb answered 16/3, 2015 at 14:57 Comment(0)

There is a workaround to disable menu bar (not hide) in all most all tablets without rooting. But this is bit tricky, but it works clean. Several well known apps in the market at the moment using this strategy to achieve this disable menu bar feature for their apps.

Grant admin privilege (need one time user involvement to activate).
Set password & lock the device using device admin profile api programatically.
Then load what ever the UIs on top of the native lock screen. (Of course this will show background lock screen whenever a transition happens between activities. But if logic is organized well, then it will be smooth & less noticed by the user)
When need to enable back, reset password to "" using resetPassword("", 0) of device policy manager object.

Continuate answered 10/7, 2013 at 12:59 Comment(0)

To complement the answers already given, and in case it is useful for someone needing a similar behaviour, there is this tutorial for android devices 4.0 and higher, it tells you how to hide the navigation bar and the status bar (they will reappear when the screen is touched again):

https://developer.android.com/training/system-ui/navigation.html

I realize it is not what you need exactly, but might be useful for someone else looking at this problem.

Sister answered 27/12, 2013 at 3:21 Comment(0)

Hot tags

Godot Unity Godot Help Programming Godot 4.X GUI GDScript 3D 2D Physics CSharp Godot 3.X VR XR Projects C++

Recommended topics

Hot tags