# Getting rid of Status Bar on 4.1



## VinnyB (Dec 29, 2011)

I need to get rid of the system bar on Android 4.1 tablets since the tablets will be in a commercial/retail environment and be used for business. My app will be the only app used on the tablet and it needs as much screen real estate as possible for what we're trying to do. I have searched already and I see that there are ways to do it on a rooted tablet, however since this will be in a business and deployed to several hundred or thousand businesses, I cannot have all the tablets rooted for legal and security issues. (Would I really have issues legally though if I were to root them?)

I know that you can dim the status bar and make the buttons dots but that really isn't optimal.

If there is no way to get rid of it, is it possible to change the status bar icons and functionality? I ask this because our app has a status bar on top and we could possibly move it to the bottom and change the icons and functionality of the status bar to match the app's status bar so no screen real estate is lost.

I have read that 4.2 adds some fullscreen functionality for apps. Is this true? Can the status bar be hidden in 4.2 as opposed to 4.1?


----------



## JBirdVegas (Jun 11, 2011)

VinnyB said:


> I need to get rid of the system bar on Android 4.1 tablets since the tablets will be in a commercial/retail environment and be used for business. My app will be the only app used on the tablet and it needs as much screen real estate as possible for what we're trying to do. I have searched already and I see that there are ways to do it on a rooted tablet, however since this will be in a business and deployed to several hundred or thousand businesses, I cannot have all the tablets rooted for legal and security issues. (Would I really have issues legally though if I were to root them?)
> 
> I know that you can dim the status bar and make the buttons dots but that really isn't optimal.
> 
> ...


if you just want your app to run in full screen then use something like this in your AndroidManifest.xml

```
<br />
<application<br />
    android:icon="@drawable/icon"<br />
    android:label="@string/app_name"<br />
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"><br />
```
Its naive to think your app will be the only app ever used on the device, no matter the circumstances. In fact without making custom firmware you won't be able to stop users from using other apps, especially those users with a little Android knowledge.


----------

