How can I force my Essential PH1 phone to run apps using the notification bar as part of the screen?

[Android Central Question]

So basically when I run certain apps, especially games, the notification bar is not used and remains black for most games. How can I force the game to recognize and use the upper part of my screen? This is because I would like to make use of the strip of space at the top of the screen.

And there are apps that remove the notification and home buttons, but not use the space. Is there a way I can trick my game into thinking I have a different screen resolution then what is allowed?

Thanks

 

[Rukbat]

No, the games you're referring to are written to use the entire screen. If you want to make an existing app do that, you'd have to decompile it, rewrite it, then recompile it. It's possible but, unless you've had at least a few years of experience developing android apps, I doubt that you could do it. (It doesn't actually require mind reading, but at times it seems as if that's what you're trying to do. "What the heck was he trying to do here?" when the code you're looking at doesn't seem to make sense - it did to the developer, so if only you could read his mind.)

For all practical purposes, no, it can't be done.

(I suppose someone could write an app to cause apps to write to a "larger" screen - but I have no idea what effect that would have on the phone. And that's changing things at the system level, so it might require rooting. I don't know - I've never tried mangling Android like that. CP/M, yes. DOS, yes. Even Windows and Netware. But not Android.)