How To Hide The VPN Icon In The Status Bar of Android – No Need To Root Directory

How To Hide The VPN Icon

How to hide the VPN icon in the status bar of Android – no need to root directory

Depending on how you use your phone, you may have noticed that the status bar is a bit crowded because different icons are enabled. While some icons are important, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the VPN key icon may be redundant, especially if the application uses notifications. Ok, there are ways to get rid of the icons.

With a magical app, you can now remove the VPN icon from the status bar. Since even the hidden system UI tuner menu does not allow you to disable the icon, a solution is needed. Fortunately, developer Zachary Wandar has an application that solves this problem and allows you to remove any status field icons, all without a rooted device

Step 1: Download SystemUI Tuner

First, download the SystemUI Tuner app from developer Zachary Wandar. We are no stranger to Zachary’s work because we have previously highlighted another application he created called Nacho Notch. The app is free to use on the Play Store and you can find it using the link below.

Step 2: Install ADB on your computer

In order for the application to work properly, it must be given special privileges. Contrary to the state that Android prompts you to allow, you must use the ADB command to issue these elevated permissions.

ADB can be daunting because it requires a specific application on your computer and you need to enable the hidden image option on your phone. Therefore, we created an exhaustive step-by-step guide on how to use ADB so that you can enter the first command when you are done. Please see the link below for more information.

Step 3: Open a command prompt in the correct directory
Then connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable. From there, you will need to find the “platform-tools” folder in the ADB installation directory. Since the location of this folder may vary, look for your computer’s Platform Tools hard drive.

Once you find the platform-tools folder, you must copy its full location path. On Windows (and most Linux buildings), click on the address bar at the top of the Explorer window and copy the location from there (right-click –> Select All –> Copy) is very easy. For Mac users, open the Platform Tools platform in the Finder, press cmd + opt + p to display the search location of the folder, right-click on “Platform Tools” at the bottom of the window, and select “Copy as Search Name”.

Now open a command prompt or terminal window. On Windows, press the Windows key on your keyboard, type “cmd” and press Enter. On Linux or Mac, just open “Terminal” in the Applications folder.

Type the command to interpret open, type “cd” (without the quotation marks) followed by a space, then press ctrl + v (or cmd + v) to paste it into the previously copied platform-tools directory location. Finally, the command should look like the following command (except that you might have another folder location), so if it is, continue and press the Enter key on the keyboard so that the command window works on the right side.

The following command:

  adb shell pm grant com.zacharee1.systemuituner android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS 

If an error occurs and you are using Mac, Linux or Windows PowerShell, add command above the period and slash at the beginning, or just copy it:

  ./ adb shell pm grant com.zacharee1.systemuituner android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS 

If these commands are not suitable for you, then your ADB has problems installing. See the link guide in Step 2 to square things.

Step 5: Hide the VPN icon and try to change it

Now you can disconnect your phone from your computer. Open the SystemUI Tuner app and browse to the original settings menu. At the end of these menus, if you want to continue without providing any two optional permissions, you will see a quick question. Since you have given important information to delete the VPN icon, select “Yes” to access the main menu. From there, click on “To tweaks!”

In the main menu, select “Status Bar”, then scroll down and find “VPN Icon” and press the switch to disable it. You have successfully hidden the VPN icon.

Make sure it works, open your VPN application and choose a connection to its server. The “button icon”, usually located to the right of the status bar, should no longer appear, indicating that you have hidden the icon. At this point, you can even uninstall the SystemUI Tuner and the VPN icon will still be hidden.

If you browse the terms and conditions of the app, the developer has very few things to list and you should be aware. First, this application cannot run on TouchWiz-based devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Changing any status bar icon on a TouchWiz-based device running Android 7.0 Nougat can also cause a crash. Therefore, people using older Samsung devices should be aware of this issue. Finally, Huawei and Xiaomi equipment is not feasible.

Cover and screenshot Jon Knight / Gadget Hacks 

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