Running All Apps fullscreen/hiding status bar permanently

[Guest rockstarszzzz]

Hey!

I've been looking for making android full screen specially the fact that I want to see how hiding toolbar/status bar would work out.

I've come across this website - http://www.androidsnippets.com/how-to-make-an-activity-fullscreen

It suggests that by doing so, I should be able to run 'all' activities full screen which obviously should indirectly hide the status bar.

Can anyone please suggest, how to, where to - apply this code on CM7 please (if it's possible).

It might be a great idea if this can go as an .apk or flashable .zip but due to limitation to my knowledge of - if it will work at all and if it can be made into installable change, I need someone to help me.

Thanks in advance!

[Guest flshg]

The code is only for the particular app that the code is applied to - so once the app finishes android will show the status bar again. If you want to permanently hide the status (or toggle it irrespective of the running app) I think it would require hacking the systemui.apk as that handles the status bar (for GSF and libra-based roms, not sure about CM7).

[Guest martin tander(estonia)]

Umm in cm u can hide the statusbar by checking box "hide statusbar"

Guess i understand it wrong way or something)))

[Guest rockstarszzzz]

Umm in cm u can hide the statusbar by checking box "hide statusbar"

Guess i understand it wrong way or something)))

Yes you did understand in the wrong way ;)

You can hide status bar in all ROMs via launcher - but that's just for the launcher screens and app drawer. As soon as you launch an activity like sms, email or call log - the bar re-appears.

So the aim was to find out if the above linked code can be applied in some generic way which could 'force' all activities (not just apps) to go full screen on each launch.

I know it might sound absurd idea especially when you get all notifications in status bar - but I've noticed that for majority of the notifications we either get a widget or dont need to be notified as much.. plus we get bigger real estate throughout the whole usage experience.

[Guest t0mm13b]

I am not sure if this can be done, maybe in a hackish sort of a way, bear in mind one thing, you'd need root privileges to be able to iterate through the list of processes that have activities and to adjust it on the fly in a hackish sort of way, to make it take up the whole screen estate size.

Now, ethically, I think that is wrong to force ALL running activities to be running full screen, furthermore, how would you get at that window manager for each process's activity to achieve that hence root privileges to be able to alter that.

In one sense, root would be needed to modify processes that you don't own, the other sense, is that hacking it could break an existing running app as it would be a situation that they may not be aware of or perhaps have their own onConfigurationChanged handler but would not know how to adjust if the status bar disappears and re-appears.

Edit:

As far as I know, there is no intent message for when the status bar disappears/re-appears thusly, onConfigurationChanged or their handler would not know what to do! :)

Just my 2cents. :)

Edited November 9, 2011 by t0mm13b

[Guest flshg]

I find that if the systemui.apk crashes (say, due to experimentation), that the status bar disappears, but apps can still run, and actually do so in full screen. Perhaps some apps wont 'stretch' properly when this happens, but on the whole it gives you the full screen. Of course deliberately crashing the systemui is not acceptable but it shows that full screen for all apps is possible.

[Guest martin tander(estonia)]

I once broke the stasusbar.process i flashed statusbar tweak i wanted to try the power widget on rom that hasn't had one:p had to look or statusbar zip to restore took a while lol

But when i booted it said the process statusbar has stopped unexpectedly etc.

and no statusbar appeared till i restored it by flashing that zip through cwm

[Guest Chris Banks]

Breaking SystemUI.apk will make the status bar not appear.

Personally I would hate not having a status bar, wouldn't know the state of your signal strenghts and battery, and it would kill functionally/multitasking.

Would be like having an pre iOS5 certain type of fruit.

But that's my opinion.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Chris Banks

[Guest rockstarszzzz]

I am not sure if this can be done, maybe in a hackish sort of a way, bear in mind one thing, you'd need root privileges to be able to iterate through the list of processes that have activities and to adjust it on the fly in a hackish sort of way, to make it take up the whole screen estate size.

Now, ethically, I think that is wrong to force ALL running activities to be running full screen, furthermore, how would you get at that window manager for each process's activity to achieve that hence root privileges to be able to alter that.

In one sense, root would be needed to modify processes that you don't own, the other sense, is that hacking it could break an existing running app as it would be a situation that they may not be aware of or perhaps have their own onConfigurationChanged handler but would not know how to adjust if the status bar disappears and re-appears.

Edit:

As far as I know, there is no intent message for when the status bar disappears/re-appears thusly, onConfigurationChanged or their handler would not know what to do! :)

Just my 2cents. :)

I think hacking is sort of good thing isn't it? I don't totally grasp why modifying someone else's app's behaviour is unethical? We generally modify behaviour of apps most of the time don't we? Plus if there was an app that changes how other apps behave then it's not a bad thing i.e. if I have a app that hacks into my facebook app to upload my twitter update - that's not unethical.

The way I am thinking is, 'status bar' originally 'task bar' in windows PDAs was supposed to be there because Microsoft wanted Laptop's and PDA to look a lil similar. But that was in the days of monopoly in smartphone market by WinMos. After that we got iPhone, Android, Blackberry etc, but we still have carried on with having a status bar! This might bring originality on the whole anyway. A dynamic widget that keeps scrolling your notifications as they arrive the same way the status bar does or even 'Missed it' app tries to do - that will help us swap between notifications. Since most launchers in Android come with ample of desktop screens and widgets can be developed for all apps - the idea of having an app that produces widget for everything that hits the status bar - would be cool and sufficient!

Now, going back to removing the status bar and breaking apps - that might be potential downside as not all apps are designed to run full screen. But can no code just have a systemic effect of status bar staying in background all the time instead? i.e. not removing the bar, but making it such that it's appearance and use of real estate is minimized. May be just making the space it takes up to the smallest available value? So the depth will reduce to may be a thin thin thin hairlike line?

I find that if the systemui.apk crashes (say, due to experimentation), that the status bar disappears, but apps can still run, and actually do so in full screen. Perhaps some apps wont 'stretch' properly when this happens, but on the whole it gives you the full screen. Of course deliberately crashing the systemui is not acceptable but it shows that full screen for all apps is possible.

Exactly! I've observed the same thing too! Most of the time I'm tempted to removing statusbar using titanium or even freezing it, but don't know if the world will end by doing so! Very skeptical, but that experiment is on my 'to do' list..

I once broke the stasusbar.process i flashed statusbar tweak i wanted to try the power widget on rom that hasn't had one:p had to look or statusbar zip to restore took a while lol

But when i booted it said the process statusbar has stopped unexpectedly etc.

and no statusbar appeared till i restored it by flashing that zip through cwm

I've done that on GSF once I think. When going from one ROM to GSF, I lost my status bar. The first ROM had power widget, the GSF din't at that time. So I think it is most likely something that we change during addition of power widget? or something in that direction? The phone did work fine apart from few FC errors initially and nothing. I think all apps etc were fine for me till I got home. Shame, I din't try any games on that day!

Breaking SystemUI.apk will make the status bar not appear.

Personally I would hate not having a status bar, wouldn't know the state of your signal strenghts and battery, and it would kill functionally/multitasking.

Would be like having an pre iOS5 certain type of fruit.

But that's my opinion.

But there are plenty of alternatives for status bar. When I was using WinMo, SPB Shell was the best replacement for home screen. SPB Shell had it's own 'app drawer' if you like and plenty of widgets for - clock, signal strenghts, battery, alarm with counter, sms counter, email counter and even a 'running apps' widget. So ideally a home replacement with plenty of widgets could easily control all the multi-tasking the status bar does. Plus, widgets could be designed, themed etc to the liking and functionality could be dynamic i.e. you could have only 3 widgets on your homescreen whereas I might want to know everything in a single go so might have 8 widgets!

I've been using google to see if I could try and understand how SPB did what it did on WinMo and although a different OS, the idea of status bar and it's function is similar!

[Guest t0mm13b]

I think hacking is sort of good thing isn't it? I don't totally grasp why modifying someone else's app's behaviour is unethical? We generally modify behaviour of apps most of the time don't we? Plus if there was an app that changes how other apps behave then it's not a bad thing i.e. if I have a app that hacks into my facebook app to upload my twitter update - that's not unethical.

Sure hacking is a good thing, but not to modify an existing app's behaviour which can induce some "weird side effects" that responsibility rests with you! :) Tell me how do you go about dealing with all the other processes running in the background or idle state with their instance saved...?

When you say "generally modify behaviour of apps", its a debatable and subjective thing, for example, suppose you came up with "a solution", people download it and install it, then find their apps break. People may then complain to the original developers, now that the original developers will be left dealing with crap as a result of what kind of "a solution" you published, and is not their responsibility to fix it as a result of "a solution" that you published, also original developers will be left with "FFFUUUUU the app broke, developer - I demand you to fix it!" which I'll just leave here for you to figure that out! :)

The way I am thinking is, 'status bar' originally 'task bar' in windows PDAs was supposed to be there because Microsoft wanted Laptop's and PDA to look a lil similar. But that was in the days of monopoly in smartphone market by WinMos. After that we got iPhone, Android, Blackberry etc, but we still have carried on with having a status bar! This might bring originality on the whole anyway. A dynamic widget that keeps scrolling your notifications as they arrive the same way the status bar does or even 'Missed it' app tries to do - that will help us swap between notifications. Since most launchers in Android come with ample of desktop screens and widgets can be developed for all apps - the idea of having an app that produces widget for everything that hits the status bar - would be cool and sufficient!

Now, going back to removing the status bar and breaking apps - that might be potential downside as not all apps are designed to run full screen. But can no code just have a systemic effect of status bar staying in background all the time instead? i.e. not removing the bar, but making it such that it's appearance and use of real estate is minimized. May be just making the space it takes up to the smallest available value? So the depth will reduce to may be a thin thin thin hairlike line?

In that case, modify the CM source to do just that, perhaps, to emit a intent broadcast to say that the status bar is moving off-screen and you write a small program to listen on that broadcast :) The job will be somewhat easier as the source is there for that purpose!

You will have to weigh up the feasibility and viability - "Should I modify the source and build it again?" or "hack the framework binary with probably dire consequences" :)