Is it a bad idea to remove the Status Bar in an application?

Question

I am not sure, but I guess:

• if you make a game, don't have a Status Bar. Looks just not good.

• if you have an app, leave the Status Bar where it is. Might be useful.

Is there any guideline by Apple when or when not to remove the Status Bar?

Answer 1

Look at Apple's "iPhone Human Interface Guidelines" page 66 where they say: "Although a full-screen, immersive application can hide the status bar, you should carefully consider the ramifications of this design decision. People expect to be able to see the current battery charge of their devices; hiding this information, and requiring users to quit your application to get it, is not an ideal user experience."

Advice is clear: don't do it :)

Answer 2

Think about how many apps on your desktop/laptop go fullscreen and hide everything - not many. If you're making a game or you're playing video (like the builtin youtube client), then hide the statusbar. Otherwise, don't.

Answer 3

Hiding the Status Bar should be the exception not the rule. If you app requires Full Screen (Game, etc) then hide the status bar during Game Mode and show during setup, start, main screen, etc.

Answer 4

If your app is immersive (such as a game or video app, as others have said) then you may prefer to hide the status bar - that's what the option is there for. Otherwise it's not a good idea.

One thing to note, however (at least as far as I have found), is that if you hide the status bar the simulator doesn't seem to let you click in the area that it otherwise would have been. If you want to put your own controls up there this can be a problem. On the device it works perfectly (in my app I have to have conditional code that will unhide the status bar if it's built for the sim).