Can you remove the system bar (back, home, recent apps) without making an app fullscreen so the notification bar is still accessible? (4.x)

Question

Creating a hardware device that will be running a custom version of Android (4.x). There will be additional functionality incorporated but we would like to use as much of existing Android as we can.

The device will only run one specific app at the start, then plan is to create our own custom system bar / action bar with fragments at the bottom of the screen. However, we ideally want the notification bar to stay at the top of the screen with all of its drop down goodness.

I am aware there are currently two mechanisms that address this:

Temporary absolute full screen hides the system bar until the screen is touched.
Dimming of the system bar where the system bar icons fade to black but still occupy the same space and come back when pressed.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers

EDIT: I know it can be done by changing the source code, that is not possible in the timeframe though unfortunately

If its a full on custom project, why not replace the navigation bar with your own at a source code level? — Raghav Sood, Apr 24 '13 at 20:21
Haven't got the time, time is critical and it's not essential, more of a nice to have if it is readily achievable somehow. — mgibson, Apr 24 '13 at 20:52

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 28 '13 at 14:09

I know you can get rid of both the system bar and the notification bar by setting the app to full screen and if we could have that plus the notification bar that would be great.

You can't actually. You have a SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION that hides it, but the bar reappears whenever there is any interaction on the screen (the notification bar also reappears with this).

Seeing as you are looking to replace the system bar completely, you will have to do this at a source code level. You are only allowed to hide it during periods of interactive inactivity using the SDK

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 29 '13 at 15:14

1

You have to create your own version of SystemUI application, and build Android with that version in place of default: https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/tree/master/packages/SystemUI

answered Apr 29 '13 at 15:14

Dan Osipov

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 26 '13 at 15:36

0

If I understand correctly, you can just add this in your manifest xml:

<activity
        ...
        android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar" > 
        ...
</activity>

This will keep the notification bar without going all-out full screen.

answered Apr 26 '13 at 15:36

Neoh

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But this does not remove the system bar. – Raghav Sood Apr 28 '13 at 14:05
Sorry for the misunderstanding. That will requires root :http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11958034/hide-tablet-system-bar – Neoh Apr 29 '13 at 03:47

Can you remove the system bar (back, home, recent apps) without making an app fullscreen so the notification bar is still accessible? (4.x)

3 Answers3