If you feel the Status Bar has become to cluttered with icons, you can follow these steps to hide specific icons from showing up at all.
I am a minimalist person when it comes to my electronic devices and try to keep things as organized as possible. So if I can remove something that is useless to me then I try my best to do so. This is a big reason why I enjoy the System UI Tuner right now. Not only can you specifically remove Status Bar icons that you have no need for, but you can also customize other aspects of the user interface from this hidden menu as well.
So yes, this is a hidden menu that you will have to enable manually.
The process is simple and will be linked in the guide below. Google warns us that these features in the System UI Tuner might not be there in future updates. The System UI Tuner had a certain number of options when it was introduced in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and some things changed with the Android 7.0 Nougat update.
So be aware that while it is possible to hide the Status Bar icons on the Pixel and Pixel XL right now, Google could remove this in a future update.
Pixel Hide Status Bar Icons
- Enable the System UI Tuner
- Launch the Settings application
- Scroll down and then tap on the ‘System UI Tuner’ option at the bottom
- Tap on the ‘Status Bar’ option at the very top
- Then toggle the icons that you don’t want in the Status Bar to the off position
Explanation
After you have been using Android for a certain period of time, there are some things that are simply redundant. For example, I get in the habit of turning Do Not Disturb mode on during certain times of the day. I know when I have turned this feature on and I don’t need Android to remind me about it by placing an icon in the Status Bar. So while this icon may be useful for some people, it’s completely useless to me and I would rather it not be included in the Status Bar.
So to hide this Status Bar icon, or any others, you’ll first need to enable the hidden System UI Tuner. Not all OEMs include this hidden menu (even if you’re running Android 6.0 or Android 7.0), so be aware of that. I’m showing this feature off with the Pixel and Pixel XL, and there are others that include it as well, but some OEMs go out of their way to prevent you from accessing this hidden menu.
Once you have enabled the System UI Tuner menu, you’ll want to launch the Settings application and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll see a new entry here (similarly to how the Developer Options menu appears) and you just need to tap on it. From here, you should see a Status Bar option at the very top. Tapping on this option will bring you to the menu where you can hide specific icons.
The list is rather large, but that is just because Android can pack a ton of them in the Status Bar. If you never see an icon in the status bar (for instance, if you never use Bluetooth), then you don’t need to disable it, but you do have the option to. For me, I like to disable things like the Do Not Disturb icon and the Airplane Mode icon for devices that I am currently doing Android tips and videos for.
As always, if you ever feel like you made a mistake by hiding the wrong icon, then you can always come back to this hidden System UI Tuner menu and toggle the icon back on.
