Want a clean and immersive screen experience on your Samsung Galaxy phone? If you use gestures to navigate on it, you can hide the gesture bar (or gesture hint) at the bottom. While that was easy earlier, Samsung changed things up with One UI 6.1 update. If you can’t find the option anymore, here’s how to hide the navigation gesture bar on your Samsung Galaxy phone.
Hide the Gesture Bar on One UI 6.1 and Newer
Among several features and improvements in One UI 6.1, Samsung did backtrack a few things. For starts, the hide gesture hint option longer appears to create a more streamlined experience with their new Circle to Search feature (launched with the Galaxy S24 series). You can long-press the gesture bar to activate this feature
However, many users who preferred working without the gesture hint visible were frustrated by this update. Thankfully, Samsung listened to feedback and was quick to provide a solution using NavStar, a powerful Good Lock module. Here’s how to use it:
1. Install Good Lock and NavStar from the Galaxy Store on your phone.
Download: Good Lock
Download: NavStar
2. Open the Good Lock app, tap NavStar and toggle on Enable extra gesture settings.
3. Open the Settings app on your Galaxy phone and navigate to Display > Navigation bar > More Options.
4. You will see a new option called Gesture hint. Turn the toggle Off to hide the gesture bar.
Take a look at the screenshot below – I hid the gesture hint on a Galaxy S23 Ultra. You can notice how clean it looks and, accommodates a line of extra information on the screen.
The difference is slightly indiscernible on the home screen, you’ll definitely notice it in apps like Gmail, Instagram, and Twitter (X).
Does Circle to Search Still Work After You Hide the Gesture Bar?
Yes, Circle to Search still works perfectly even without the gesture bar visible. Simply press and hold the same area at the bottom of your screen where the bar used to be. Then, you can circle or tap any text or image to search it on Google Lens.
If you don’t use Circle to Search often, or it gets in the way when you’re trying to use other gestures, you can easily turn it off. Open Settings and head to Display > Navigation bar and toggle off Circle to Search.
Hide the Gesture Bar on One UI 6.0 and Earlier
On Galaxy phones with One UI 6.0 and older, you can easily remove the gesture bar. Head to Settings > Display > Navigation Bar and turn off the toggle next to Gesture Hint. That will remove the gesture pill at the bottom of your screen.
You Can Also Make Gesture Hint Transparent
Want to keep the gesture bar but get more screen space? The bar’s default background takes up a bit of room, but you can make it transparent. This way, the content fills that space, giving you a slightly more immersive view.
You can use NavStar from Good Lock as shown earlier and toggle on Transparent Hint. You’ll instantly notice content shifting down slightly to fit in more content. That’ll be visible from the NavStar menu itself.
In short, you can reclaim screen space on your Samsung Galaxy phone by either completely hiding the navigation gesture bar or making it transparent (both with NavStar from Good Lock). While it seemed like Samsung might remove the hide option entirely, it’s fantastic that they listened to user feedback and kept this valuable feature available.
