Hide Android Navigation Bar in React Native

Question

How can I hide the Android Navigation Bar in React Native?

I'm referring to the bar at the bottom of the screen that has the software back button and home button, not the component at the top of the page that comes with the Navigator Component.

This page on android.com explains how to do it for native developers. Can someone explain how to accomplish this via React Native apps? Thanks.

Answer 1

If you're looking to achieve this permanently you'll have to hide the Navbar when the app is created and when it comes back into focus.

To do so, add this in your MainActivity.java:

...
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;

public class MainActivity extends ReactActivity {

    ...

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        hideNavigationBar();
    }

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

    private void hideNavigationBar() {
        getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION);
    }
}

You may want to make it "immersive" so that the user can still access the navigation bar by pulling from the bottom of the screen. To do so, add the View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY flag:

...
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;

public class MainActivity extends ReactActivity {

    ...

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        hideNavigationBar();
    }

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

    private void hideNavigationBar() {
        getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(
            View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
            | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY);

    }
}

You can find more options on the android documentation.