With Android 10 Q full gesture navigation is finally available. Google has unfortunately overlooked the option for users to simply hide the bottom navigation bar once they have become accustomed to the gestures. Thankfully there is already an app that will allow you to toggle the navbar’s visibility (well actually it just draws it below the screen). This can be done easily on rooted devices but it is also available to non-rooted phones as well. If your device DOES NOT have root access this requires a PC (Windows, Linux/BSD, or Mac) to enable the functionality.
This does NOT require your device to be rooted. The following ADB command does NOT void your devices warranty, you are just granting an additional permission to an app that is unavailable through the GUI.
If your device IS ALREADY rooted you can simply grant the app SuperUser and skip the command.
There are currently two apps that offer a toggle setting for the navigation bar once the required command has been run.
- Navigation Gestures - Swipe Gesture Controls! by XDA (recommended)
- Hide Navigation Bar by Manuel Wrage
If you are rooted: grant your selected app SuperUser, finish the on-boarding and enable the setting. Your navigation bar should now be off screen.
For those who aren’t rooted, lets now grant your selected app the secure settings permission. Depending on which app you decide to use the command will be slightly different as you are actually granting the specific app an additional system permission.
Enable Developer Mode & USB Debugging
First you need to let your phone communicate with your PC via USB debugging.
Open your Android settings app, scroll to bottom and select “About Phone”, scroll to the bottom again and tap the build number seven(7) times, enable developer mode
Settings>About Phone>Tap Build Number 7 Times>Enable Developer Mode
Now that you’re a developer go back to the main settings page, select System, Advanced, Developer options, enable USB debugging
Settings>System>Advanced>Developer options>USB debugging
Installing ADB
ADB or the Android Debug Bridge is available for all platforms. You can follow this in depth guide on XDA https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/
If you’re on Linux you should be able to install ‘android-tools-adb’ on any Debian or Ubuntu based system. https://packages.debian.org/buster/android-tools-adb
On Arch/Manjaro systems ADB is provided through the ‘android-tools’ package. https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/android-tools/
Once you have some kind of ADB binary on your system you can now plug in and trust your device, then run the following command depending on which of the toggle apps you’ve chosen.
Navigation Gestures - Swipe Gesture Controls! by XDA
adb shell pm grant com.xda.nobar android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGSHide Navigation Bar by Manuel Wrage
adb shell pm grant com.ivianuu.hidenavbar android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGSIf you get an error about the device not being trusted, unlock your device and trust your PC for USB debugging.
After you have successfully granted the app the permission you’re done! Now enter the app and toggle the setting on or off whenever you want!