page.title=Hiding the Navigation Bar trainingnavtop=true @jd:body

This lesson teaches you to

  1. Hiding the Navigation Bar on 4.0 and Higher
  2. Make Content Appear Behind the Navigation Bar

You should also read

This lesson describes how to hide the navigation bar, which was introduced in Android 4.0 (API level 14).

Even though this lesson focuses on hiding the navigation bar, you should design your app to hide the status bar at the same time, as described in Hiding the Status Bar. Hiding the navigation and status bars (while still keeping them readily accessible) lets the content use the entire display space, thereby providing a more immersive user experience.

system bars

Figure 1. Navigation bar.

Hide the Navigation Bar on 4.0 and Higher

You can hide the navigation bar on Android 4.0 and higher using the {@link android.view.View#SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION} flag. This snippet hides both the navigation bar and the status bar:

View decorView = getWindow().getDecorView();
// Hide both the navigation bar and the status bar.
int uiOptions = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
              | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN;
decorView.setSystemUiVisibility(uiOptions);

Note the following:

Make Content Appear Behind the Navigation Bar

On Android 4.1 and higher, you can set your application's content to appear behind the navigation bar, so that the content doesn't resize as the navigation bar hides and shows. To do this, use {@link android.view.View#setSystemUiVisibility setSystemuiVisibility(SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION)}. You may also need to use {@link android.view.View#SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE} to help your app maintain a stable layout.

When you use this approach, it becomes your responsibility to ensure that critical parts of your app's UI don't end up getting covered by system bars. For more discussion of this topic, see the Hiding the Status Bar lesson.