Completely Disable/Hide Status Bar on 4.4.2

Question

We are developing a launcher app for elderly people which has a very easy UI and we do not want to show status bar or notification drawer.

Now i tried to disable Status Bar but it seems to re-appear when i pull down from the upper side of the screen. And if i pull-down for the second time notification drawer is opened. Is there a way to completely disable Status Bar?

I checked the documentation on the following links but i think no solution is present. In API level 16 we were able to disable it completely but not in api level 19. https://developer.android.com/training/system-ui/status.html#41

https://developer.android.com/training/system-ui/immersive.html#nonsticky

Solution 1

Try this. It hides status bar, bar with home, return buttons. I use it and it works for me on 4.4.2 AllWinner V11 tablet

Needs ROOT

Use this at your own risk

• After rooting install SuperSU and file manager app like ES file explorer.
• Grant access for ES explorer
• In ES settings check Root explorer then Mount RW
• In /system find build prop.build file
• At the end add qemu.hw.mainkeys = 1
• Save and exit, reboot.

This will hide the bottom bar with Return, Home, and Recent apps. No swipes or other interupts it. To show it again delete qemu.hw.mainkeys = 1 or make it 0

Solution 2

In android 4.4+ you can not hide status bar really, instead you can prevent the on click expansion of status bar.

To hide the status bar or prevent the expansion of status bar in android 4.4+, please check the solution on below link (as solution is pretty big I am giving the link only ... :) )

Prevent Expansion of status bar in android 4.4+ or android kitkat

Solution 3

You can draw some view above status bar and consume all input events. It prevent the status from expanding.

More details here: Permanently hide Android Status Bar

It worked for me.