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Comment by robertoandred | Hacker News Reader

> Hide status icons that are just always on and thus meaningless.

Could you share some examples?

I routinely hid the cellular, battery, and VPN indicators on my KeyOne. This isn't unique to Samsung, it's available via ADB. They might expose it, and allow non-geeks to use it, but that hardly makes it a Samsung feature to anyone browsing this site and with more than a passing interest in UI customization.

Samsung has an app called "Good Lock", with a bunch of sub-apps, that allow a crazy amount of customization. Those for example are just toggles in the "QuickStar" sub-app.

Some of the changes I've made include different icons for the back/home/app switcher buttons at the bottom of the screen and a different layout for the app switcher.

But why? Do you also hide your speedometer when using cruise control?

No, but the ratio of data I use to data available per billing period, coupled with excellent coverage, meant being on data vs wifi made no difference whatsoever. It served absolutely no purpose.

Same with the battery icon. When you plug in your phone every night, but the battery lasts 2-3 days, knowing you're at 80% vs 72% has no purpose.

Why have them there if all they do is contribute to anxiety (why did I lose 3% faster?) and take up space in the top bar (where alarm and DND indicators live)?

I specifically hide the Alarm, Volume, Battery (I show percentage), NFC, and Bluetooth icons.

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