Appium Concepts — 🧪 How to Use Appium’s .getSystemBars() Method to Detect ‘Status & Navigation’ Bars information

Watch the video below for your complete step-by-step guide!

In this Article, We will discuss about ‘How to Use Appium’s .getSystemBars() built-in method to Detect ‘Status & Navigation’ Bars information.

🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Article:

✅ What are Android System Bars? (Status Bar & Navigation Bar)
🔍 How to use Appium’s .getSystemBars() method
💡 Why it matters: Key use cases in mobile UI automation
⚙️ How to configure the emulator to display the navigation bar
🚫 Limitations and edge cases of .getSystemBars()
📐 Understanding the “Usable Screen Area” in mobile devices
💻 Full working Java example with step-by-step explanation

driver.getSystemBars() — Complete Guide

Purpose:

The getSystemBars() method is used to fetch properties of Android system UI components: the status bar (top) and navigation bar (bottom/back/home buttons).

This helps determine:

Whether these bars are visible
Their height in pixels

This information is crucial in visual validation, coordinate calculations, and pixel-perfect UI automation.

Method Signature (Java):

Map <String, Map <String, Object>> getSystemBars()

Map<String, Map<String, Object>> is a nested Java Map structure. Here's a breakdown of what it means and how to use it effectively.

What is Map<String, Map<String, Object>>?

Outer Map: Keys are String

Value of each key in outer map: Another Map with:

Keys: String

Values: Object (can be any data type)

Returned Data Structure

The method returns a Map<String, Object> with two main keys:

{
  "statusBar": {
    "visible": true,
    "height": 72
  },
  "navigationBar": {
    "visible": true,
    "height": 144
  }
}

1. S`tatus Bar`

visible: true or false (Boolean)
height: Height of the status bar in device pixels

2. N`avigation Bar`

visible: true or false (Boolean)
height: Height of the navigation bar in device pixels

Java Code Example:

//To get Android System bars information - Status Bar & Navigation Bar
  System.out.println("To get Android System bars information - Status Bar & Navigation Bar");
  Map <String, Map <String, Object>> systemBars=driver.getSystemBars();
  System.out.println("Navigation Bar & Status Bar: " +systemBars);
  
  Map<String,Object> StatusBar=(Map<String,Object>)systemBars.get("statusBar");
  Map<String,Object> NavBar=(Map<String,Object>)systemBars.get("navigationBar");

To enable the Navigation Bar in an Android emulator,
you can follow these methods depending on the Android version and emulator configuration:

✅ Method 1: Use Emulator Settings (For Gesture-Free Navigation)

Launch Emulator
Go to Settings > System > Gestures > System Navigation
Select “3-button navigation” to enable the traditional navigation bar (Back, Home, Overview buttons)

✅ Method 2: Use ADB Command

Run the following ADB command to enable the navigation bar:

adb shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "space,recent;home;back"

To apply it on a running emulator:

adb -s emulator-5554 shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "space,recent;home;back"

Then reboot:

adb reboot

Use Cases:(Important):

⚠️ Limitations / Considerations

Android only
Returns values in physical pixels, not dp/sp (density-independent units)
Might return inaccurate results on:
Devices with gesture-based navigation (no visible navbar)
Immersive apps where bars auto-hide
Might require slight delay after activity load for reliable results

🔁 Best Practices

Always cast returned values properly (Map<String, Object>)
Use in combination with screen size to calculate usable space:

Dimension screenSize = driver.manage().window().getSize();
int usableHeight = screenSize.getHeight() - (statusBarHeight + navBarHeight);

Consider calling after a wait for proper visibility state.

“Complete Code: Optimized and Ready to Use”:

package com.appiumguide.appiumconcepts;

import org.testng.annotations.AfterTest;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeTest;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

import io.appium.java_client.android.AndroidDriver;
import io.appium.java_client.android.options.UiAutomator2Options;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.*;
import java.time.Duration;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Script Details - Appium Concepts : 🧪 How to Use Appium’s .getSystemBars() Method to Detect “Status & Navigation Bars”
 * 
 * appium-java-client version: latest
 * 
 * @author 'Ramesh Kodumuru' for AppiumGuide [appiumguide@gmail.com]
 */

public class GetSystemBarsDemo {
 
 private AndroidDriver driver;
 
        
 @BeforeTest
 public void setup() throws MalformedURLException {
  UiAutomator2Options cap=new UiAutomator2Options();
  cap.setPlatformName("android");
  cap.setAutomationName("uiautomator2");
  cap.setDeviceName("Pixel6");  
     
  driver = new AndroidDriver(new URL("http://127.0.0.1:4723"), cap);
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(100));
  
 }
 
 @Test
 public void test() throws InterruptedException, IOException {
  
  //To get Android System bars information - Status Bar & Navigation Bar
  System.out.println("To get Android System bars information - Status Bar & Navigation Bar");
  Map <String, Map <String, Object>> systemBars=driver.getSystemBars();
  System.out.println("Navigation Bar & Status Bar: " +systemBars);
  
  Map<String,Object> StatusBar=(Map<String,Object>)systemBars.get("statusBar");
  Map<String,Object> NavBar=(Map<String,Object>)systemBars.get("navigationBar");
  
  //To Print Visibility & Height of Status Bar 
  System.out.println("To Print Visibility & Height of Status Bar");
  System.out.println("Status Bar - Visible or not - "+StatusBar.get("visible"));
  System.out.println("Status bar - Height - "+StatusBar.get("height"));
  
  //To Print Visibility & Height of Navigation Bar 
  System.out.println("To Print Visibility & Height of Navigation Bar");
  System.out.println("Navigation Bar - Visible or not - "+NavBar.get("visible"));
  System.out.println("Navigation bar - Height - "+NavBar.get("height"));  
          
 } 
    
  
 @AfterTest
 public void teardown() {
  
  if(driver!=null) {
   driver.quit();
   System.out.println("Test Completed");
  }
  
 }

}

Result(screenshot);

GitHub Link:

GitHub - AppiumGuide/AppiumGuide

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