Using new IMMERSIVE mode in android kitkat

Question

I want to make an activity to go into IMMERSIVE mode and hide top and buttom system bars as soon as it starts.

In developers site of android they say I should use setSystemUiVisibility() and provide SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE and SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION.

How can I do this in the OnCreate() method of the activity? I think the setSystemUiVisibility is not provided in the Activity class and it should happen in a view. Is there a workaround?

UPDATE

ok According to doorstuck I added the following lines but I dont see any changes, navigation bar and buttom buttons are still visible :

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
        }
        getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION);
        getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE);
    }

    //Rest of activity code

Answer 1

Get the decor view:

getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(...)

Remember that the arguments are bit flags. Only call the method above once:

getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(
          View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN
        | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE);

Answer 2

Chris Banes gist shows a nice Helper Class we can use to set the immersive mode for all Versions from HoneyComb to Lollipop https://gist.github.com/chrisbanes/73de18faffca571f7292.

Update: I tried get it from his github repo to include in my project, but i had to clone the gist files into my project and adjsut the packagename. If someone knows how to include it properly as a dependency, u r welcome to help me.

I added it in my FullScreenActivity i want to use the ImmersiveStickyMode like this:

@Override
public void onWindowFocusChanged(boolean hasFocus) {
    super.onWindowFocusChanged(hasFocus);

        final int flags = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY;

        SystemUiHelper uiHelper =  new SystemUiHelper(this, SystemUiHelper.LEVEL_IMMERSIVE ,flags);
        uiHelper.hide();



}

Answer 3

Much nicer and credit to William J. Francis:

   public class GameActivity extends Activity{

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        /* my code you dont need this
        assets=getAssets();
        sGame= new GameView(this, GAME_WIDTH, GAME_HEIGHT);
        setContentView(sGame);  
        getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);
        */


        getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(
                View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION // hide nav bar
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN // hide status bar
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY);
    }

@Override         
protected void onDoSomethingOtherImportantThing(){
...
}



}

Answer 4

You can create global function to go into immersive mode like:

public static void enableImmersiveMode(final View decorView) {
        decorView.setSystemUiVisibility(setSystemUiVisibility());
        decorView.setOnSystemUiVisibilityChangeListener(new View.OnSystemUiVisibilityChangeListener() {
            @Override
            public void onSystemUiVisibilityChange(int visibility) {
                if ((visibility & View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN) == 0) {
                    decorView.setSystemUiVisibility(setSystemUiVisibility());
                }
            }
        });
    }


public static int setSystemUiVisibility() {
        return View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN
                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY;
 }

Above code will also control system UI visibility change. Hope this will help you.

Answer 5

Answer has already been given but here is How to utilize Immersive mode.

In your activity:

just before setContentview().......

call the method: toggleHideyBar();

Follow documentation documentation from Developer android and copy this method in your Activity.

Answer 6

android:immersive="true" will hide the Bottom system bars

<application> 
 <activity
        android:name=".CarrierActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:excludeFromRecents="true"
        android:immersive="true"
        android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize">
        <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="com.example.SetupWiz.SUW_CARRIER"/>
         <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
       </intent-filter>
    </activity>
</application>