Stop the S8 from Showing Black Bars

How to Stop the Galaxy S8 from Showing Black Bars at the Top and Bottom of Some Apps

By Cameron Summerson


With the Galaxy S8 family, Samsung took an all-in bet on a different aspect ratio for the display. Instead of a traditional 16:9 ratio, the S8 uses 18.5:9. It’s not that different, but different enough that it can cause some issues with certain apps.

When an app isn’t officially supported, it gets bars at the top and bottom that really creates a disjointed look on the screen—like the notification and navigation bars are completely segregated from the rest of the screen, instead of that seamless experience that Android has been using for the last couple of years. It’s the little things, you know?



The good news is that Samsung seemingly anticipated some backlash to this disconnect, so it incorporated a way to “force” unsupported apps into full screen mode anyway. There is, of course, the disclaimer the app may not work properly, since it’s being scaled in a way that’s against what it’s designed to do, but I haven’t had any issues yet.

To fix these apps, pull down the notification shade and tap the gear icon. Then scroll down to Display and tap into that menu.



A little ways down this menu is an entry for “Full screen apps,” which is really kind of a misleading title…but that’s the one you’re looking for. Give it a tap.



All the currently installed apps will load, some of which are already toggled on. The ones that are “off” are the ones that will show the unwanted bars at the top and bottom, so tap that little button to make your life much better.



Once Full Screen has been enabled for the specific app, you’ll go from this:



To this:



See how much better that is? So much.