title: Iphone: Is it possible to hide the TabBar? (Pre-iOS 8)
body: <p>I have an application that uses a <code>UITabBarController</code> to switch between modes. When in a certain mode, I'd like to hide the tab bar until the steps of that mode have been completed. Note that I'm not using a navigation controller so I can't use the <code>setHidesBottomBarWhenPushed</code> method on the navigation controller to hide the tab bar.</p>
  
  <p>Prior to iOS 8, When I attempt to hide the tarbar using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>self.tabBarController.tabBar.hidden = YES
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the tab bar goes away, but it leaves a 50 pixel blank area at the bottom of the screen where the tab bar used to be. I can't seem to figure out how to fill that area. Anything in the UI that is in that area is clipped and cannot be seen.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas if this is even possible? I'd really like to stay away from the navigation controller.</p>