iPhone X Is that black bar around the front camera always visible?

[TomOSeven]

I haven't kept up with iPhone releases for a while, so I'm wondering if that weird black bar around the speaker / camera is always visible or if it's something that one can turn off.

The way it is, it does seem to obscure a part of the screen, which would be very questionable design in my view.

 

[nrvna76]

Can’t tell if serious...

#notch

 

[alpi123]

I think he's serious. And no, you can't hide it. It's most visible when an app has a black status bar but otherwise you'll see it (and most of the time ignore it, you really don't spend much time looking at it, you just learn to ignore it).