Is your Android status bar a cluttered mess of icons you never look at? Bluetooth, NFC, alarm, VPN — some of these icons have sat there uselessly for years. The good news: you can hide almost any status bar icon on your Android phone, and it only takes a few minutes.
Android status bar icons on a Pixel phone (Credits: How-To Geek)
How to Hide Android Status Bar Icons on Samsung Phones
Samsung owners have it easiest. Install Samsung’s official “Good Lock” app from the Play Store, then download the QuickStar module inside it. Open QuickStar, toggle it on, and select “Visibility of indicator icons.”
You’ll see the full list of system icons — everything from the battery icon to VPN — each with a simple toggle. Flip off anything you don’t need. Note that icons like Bluetooth, NFC, and alarms only appear when you pull down the notification or Quick Settings panel anyway, so hiding them barely changes anything you rely on.
How to Hide Status Bar Icons on Pixel and Other Android Phones
Google offers no Good Lock equivalent, but a free app called “System UI Tuner” gives you a shortcut to Android’s hidden native tool of the same name. The System UI Tuner shipped with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and was removed from Developer Options in Android 9 — but it’s still baked into Android, which is why the shortcut works.
Install the app from the Play Store, open it, and select “Status bar.” You’ll get a list of every system icon that can appear, with some extras like showing the battery percentage only while charging.
A quick declutter of the status bar makes the phone feel noticeably cleaner — and it’s completely reversible, so there’s no risk in experimenting.
Also Read: Samsung’s One UI 9 Update Has Me Rethinking My Galaxy Phone Habits (for the Better)
Source: How-To Geek — read the full story there.
