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I'm trying to completely disable the status bar and had a solution which draws a black box on top of the status bar, however, requires the app to be a system app (which is fine). Recently I was shown a video in which disabling of the status bar was made by utilizing device owner sdk methods. I'm not able to find them using a quick google research. What are they?

Example video: http://static.lostpolygon.com/temp/uploads/mToCEZ2HRU.mp4

Gintas_
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1 Answers1

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I'm pretty sure it's utilizing the "Lock Task Mode" (or KNOX Kiosk mode).

To utilize the "Lock Task Mode" you first need to give rights to the app that will use it. Then the app can start an activity in this mode.

Requirements

You must be the device owner application.

Whitelisting the app

To whitelist your app utilize the following code from the device owner application:

Context context = getContext();
DevicePolicyManager dpm =
    (DevicePolicyManager) context.getSystemService(Context.DEVICE_POLICY_SERVICE);
ComponentName adminName = getComponentName(context);
dpm.setLockTaskPackages(adminName, APP_PACKAGES);

Start lock task mode

// Set an option to turn on lock task mode when starting the activity.
ActivityOptions options = ActivityOptions.makeBasic();
options.setLockTaskEnabled(true);

// Start our kiosk app's main activity with our lock task mode option.
PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
Intent launchIntent = packageManager.getLaunchIntentForPackage(KIOSK_PACKAGE);
if (launchIntent != null) {
  context.startActivity(launchIntent, options.toBundle());
}

I urge you to read the full documentation for lock task mode and it's different options:

JensV
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  • but this requires api 28, however, I was told the solution works on android 7, which is api 24 – Gintas_ Apr 21 '20 at 15:49
  • @Gintas_ Quote from the linked docs: "In Android versions before 9.0, an app starts its own activities in lock task mode by calling Activity.startLockTask()." Also see https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity#startLockTask() – JensV Apr 21 '20 at 17:04
  • will check. Is this supposed to work outside of the app that toggles this? Because we're looking to disable the status bar on the device, not only the app. – Gintas_ Apr 21 '20 at 17:50
  • @Gintas_ I think the Application that launches the App should be able to trigger it somehow since the *Android Management API* is able to start any app like this. But I'm fairly certain that you need to be in control of starting the app. (Perhaps starting the Launcher like this is possible?) – JensV Apr 22 '20 at 07:37