There are several ways to take a screenshot on your Android smartphone. You can ask the Google Voice Assistant, press physical buttons (which are usually the power and volume-down buttons pressed together), or use gestures. But with these methods, the status and navigation bars are often captured and shown in the screenshot. Here’s what you can do so they don’t appear in screenshots.
A little note: the solutions below may or may not be applicable to your smartphone. It depends on what Android operating system version your phone has and what modifications the phone manufacturer made to the user interface.
Take a Screenshot via Recent Apps
In the stock version of Android 11 and 12, you can take a screenshot via Recent Apps.
1. Tap the Recent Apps button in the navigation bar.
2. Find the preview of the app that you want to take a screenshot of.
3. Tap the Screenshot button below the app preview.
Look in the Settings
Go to the Settings app and see if there’s a section related to screenshots. It might be buried deep in the Settings, so try doing a quick search.
In Samsung Galaxy phones with One UI, for example, go to Settings > Advanced Features > Screenshots and Screen Recorder. Enable the option Hide Status and Navigation Bars.
Hide the Status and Navigation Bars Before Taking a Screenshot
Once again, see if there is an option in your smartphone’s Settings app on hiding the status and navigation bars beforehand so they are not present when you take a screenshot.
For the navigation bar, use gestures for navigation. This replaces the standard buttons on the navigation bar with a slim line. You can select Gesture Navigation on stock Android by going to System > Gestures > System Navigation.
Hiding the status bar is a little trickier. One method is using the Android Debug Bridge command-line utility to use the command below, but this requires enabling developer options and connecting your phone to a PC:
- adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.status=*
Edit the Screenshot
If your phone has no easy way to hide the status and navigation bars when taking a screenshot, the best alternative method is to edit the screenshot. In many Android phones, a few options may appear right after you take a screenshot. One of these options should be a Quick Edit button, which will redirect you to an edit mode where you can crop the screenshot before saving it.
Use a Screenshot App
The Google Play Store is home to several apps you can use for taking screenshots. Some of these apps may feature an option to hide the status/navigation bar.