how to hide bottom bar of android (back, home) in xamarin forms?

Question

How can I hide the bottom android bar (back button, home button) permanently in xamarin forms? I tried some code but its hiding it temporarily. When I touch the screen, it again shows. But I want to hide it completely.

Answer 1

I appreciate I'm rather late to the party with this answer, but I thought I'd chuck this in here for anyone else who's had the torrid time I've had trying to figure this out.

My Droid MainActivity now looks like this:

protected override void OnCreate(Bundle bundle)
{
    base.OnCreate(bundle);
    global::Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(this, bundle);

    //====================================
    int uiOptions = (int)Window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility;

    uiOptions |= (int)SystemUiFlags.LowProfile;
    uiOptions |= (int)SystemUiFlags.Fullscreen;
    uiOptions |= (int)SystemUiFlags.HideNavigation;
    uiOptions |= (int)SystemUiFlags.ImmersiveSticky;

    Window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility = (StatusBarVisibility)uiOptions;
    //====================================

    LoadApplication(new Pages.App());
}

That bit between the commented equals is the sweet spot. Ideally it also needs to be called in the overriden OnStart and OnResume methods as well as OnCreate, to ensure the flags remain set.

If you use "Immersive" rather than "ImmersiveSticky" for that last flag it'll make the top status and bottom system nav bars disappear as required, but when they reappear (from dragging down at the top of the screen, for instance) the bottom one won't disappear again. Therefore using "ImmersiveSticky" is the kiddie.