Display content edge-to-edge in your app

You can make your app display edge-to-edge—using the entire width and height of the display—by drawing behind the system bars. The system bars are the status bar and the navigation bar.

To implement an edge-to-edge layout, your app must do the following:

• Draw behind the navigation bar to achieve a more compelling and modern user experience.
• Draw behind the status bar if it makes sense for your content and layout, such as in the case of full-width imagery. To do this, use APIs such as AppBarLayout, which defines an app bar pinned to the top of the screen.

To implement an edge-to-edge layout in your app, perform the following steps:

1. Lay out your app full-screen.
2. Change the system bar colors and transparency.
3. Handle any visual overlaps.

Lay out your app in full screen

Use WindowCompat.setDecorFitsSystemWindows(window, false) to lay out your app behind the system bars, as shown in the following code example:

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
  WindowCompat.setDecorFitsSystemWindows(window, false)
}

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  WindowCompat.setDecorFitsSystemWindows(getWindow(), false);
}

Change the color of the system bars

When operating in an edge-to-edge layout, your app needs to change the colors of the system bars to let the content underneath be visible. After your app performs this step, the system handles all visual protection of the user interface in gesture navigation mode and in button mode.

• Gesture navigation mode: the system applies dynamic color adaptation in which the contents of the system bars change color based on the content behind them. In the following example, the handle in the navigation bar changes to a dark color when it's above light content and to a light color when it's above dark content.

• Button mode: the system applies a translucent scrim behind the system bars (for API level 29 or later) or a transparent system bar (for API level 28 or earlier).

• Status bar content color: controls the color of status bar content, such as the time and icons.

You can edit the themes.xml file to set the color of the navigation bar and, optionally, to set the status bar as transparent and status bar content color as dark.

<!-- values-v29/themes.xml -->
<style name="Theme.MyApp">
  <item name="android:navigationBarColor">
     @android:color/transparent
  </item>

  <!-- Optional: set to transparent if your app is drawing behind the status bar. -->
  <item name="android:statusBarColor">
     @android:color/transparent
  </item>

  <!-- Optional: set for a light status bar with dark content. -->
  <item name="android:windowLightStatusBar">
    true
  </item>
</style>

You can use the WindowInsetsController API directly, but we strongly recommend using the Support Library WindowInsetsControllerCompat where possible. You can use the WindowInsetsControllerCompat API instead of theme.xml to control the status bar's content color. To do so, use the setAppearanceLightNavigationBars() function, passing in true to change the foreground color of the navigation to a light color or false to revert to the default color.

val windowInsetsController =
      ViewCompat.getWindowInsetsController(window.decorView)

windowInsetsController?.isAppearanceLightNavigationBars = true

WindowInsetsControllerCompat windowInsetsController =
      ViewCompat.getWindowInsetsController(getWindow().getDecorView());
if (windowInsetsController == null) {
    return;
}

windowInsetsController.setAppearanceLightNavigationBars(true);

Handle overlaps using insets

After you implement an edge-to-edge layout with color transparency, some of your app's views might draw behind the system bars, as shown in figure 6.

You can address overlaps by reacting to insets, which specify which parts of the screen intersect with system UI such as the navigation bar or the status bar. Intersecting can mean displaying above the content, but it can also inform your app about system gestures.

The types of insets that apply to displaying your app edge-to-edge are:

• System bars insets: best for views that are tappable and that must not be visually obscured by the system bars.

• System gesture insets: for gesture-navigational areas used by the system that take priority over your app.

System bars insets

System bar insets are the most commonly used type of insets. They represent the area where the system UI displays in the Z-axis above your app. They are best used to move or pad views in your app that are tappable and that must not be visually obscured by the system bars.

For example, the floating action button (FAB) in figure 6 is partially obscured by the navigation bar:

To avoid this kind of visual overlap in either gesture mode or button mode, you can increase the view's margins using getInsets(int) with WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemBars().

The following code example shows how to implement system bar insets:

ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(view) { view, windowInsets ->
  val insets = windowInsets.getInsets(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemBars())
  // Apply the insets as a margin to the view. This solution sets
  // only the bottom, left, and right dimensions, but you can apply whichever
  // insets are appropriate to your layout. You can also update the view padding
  // if that's more appropriate.
  view.updateLayoutParams<MarginLayoutParams>(
      leftMargin = insets.left,
      bottomMargin = insets.bottom,
      rightMargin = insets.right,
  )

  // Return CONSUMED if you don't want want the window insets to keep passing
  // down to descendant views.
  WindowInsetsCompat.CONSUMED
}

ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(view, (v, windowInsets) -> {
  Insets insets = windowInsets.getInsets(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemBars());
  // Apply the insets as a margin to the view. This solution sets only the
  // bottom, left, and right dimensions, but you can apply whichever insets are
  // appropriate to your layout. You can also update the view padding if that's
  // more appropriate.
  MarginLayoutParams mlp = (MarginLayoutParams) v.getLayoutParams();
  mlp.leftMargin = insets.left;
  mlp.bottomMargin = insets.bottom;
  mlp.rightMargin = insets.right;
  v.setLayoutParams(mlp);

  // Return CONSUMED if you don't want want the window insets to keep passing
  // down to descendant views.
    return WindowInsetsCompat.CONSUMED;
});

If you apply this solution to the example shown in figure 6, it results in no visual overlap in button mode, as shown in figure 7:

The same applies to gesture navigation mode, as shown in figure 8:

System gesture insets

System gesture insets represent the areas of the window where system gestures take priority over your app. These areas are shown in orange in figure 9:

Like the system bar insets, you can avoid overlapping the system gesture insets using getInsets(int) with WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemGestures().

Use these insets to move or pad swipeable views away from the edges. Common use cases include bottom sheets, swiping in games, and carousels implemented using ViewPager2.

On Android 10 or later, system gesture insets contain a bottom inset for the home gesture, and a left and right inset for the back gestures:

The following code example shows how to implement system gesture insets:

ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(view) { view, windowInsets ->
    val insets = windowInsets.getInsets(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemGestures())
    // Apply the insets as padding to the view. Here, set all the dimensions
    // as appropriate to your layout. You can also update the view's margin if
    // more appropriate.
    view.updatePadding(insets.left, insets.top, insets.right, insets.bottom)

    // Return CONSUMED if you don't want the window insets to keep passing down
    // to descendant views.
    WindowInsetsCompat.CONSUMED
}

ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(view, (v, windowInsets) -> {
    Insets insets = windowInsets.getInsets(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemGestures());
    // Apply the insets as padding to the view. Here, set all the dimensions
    // as appropriate to your layout. You can also update the view's margin if
    // more appropriate.
    view.setPadding(insets.left, insets.top, insets.right, insets.bottom);

    // Return CONSUMED if you don't want the window insets to keep passing down
    // to descendant views.
    return WindowInsetsCompat.CONSUMED;
});

Immersive mode

Some content is best experienced in full screen, giving the user a more immersive experience. You can hide the system bars an for immersive mode using the WindowInsetsController and WindowInsetsControllerCompat libraries:

val windowInsetsController =
      ViewCompat.getWindowInsetsController(window.decorView)

// Hide the system bars.
windowInsetsController.hide(Type.systemBars())

// Show the system bars.
windowInsetsController.show(Type.systemBars())

WindowInsetsControllerCompat windowInsetsController =
      ViewCompat.getWindowInsetsController(getWindow().getDecorView());
if (windowInsetsController == null) {
    return;
  }
// Hide the system bars.
windowInsetsController.hide(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemBars());

// Show the system bars.
windowInsetsController.show(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemBars());

Refer to Hide system bars for immersive mode for more information about implementing this feature.

Additional resources

See the following references for more information about WindowInsets, gesture navigation, and how insets work:

• WindowInsets — listeners to layouts
• Gesture Navigation: Insets
• How insets work on Android?