Change App Icon Size
If the home screen on your Xiaomi phone feels cluttered or the icons look too small to tap comfortably, MIUI lets you adjust that directly from the home screen settings. The icon size is controlled by a slider, so you can fine-tune it instead of picking from a few fixed presets. Getting this wrong can shift your grid layout or cut off app names underneath the icons.
Turn On/Off Auto Brightness
If your Xiaomi screen keeps getting brighter or dimmer without you touching anything, Auto Brightness is reacting to the light sensor. You can still drag the brightness slider manually while the function stays active, which often causes confusion about which setting is actually in control.
Turn Off Developer Options
If Developer options keeps popping up in your Xiaomi settings even though you only enabled it once for a quick fix, it usually just needs to be switched off inside its own menu. Leaving it active keeps USB debugging and other low-level toggles exposed, which can interfere with app checks or banking apps. Turning it off hides the whole menu again until you reactivate it through the hidden tap sequence.
Shake to Auto-Arrange Home Screen Icons
Empty cells scattered across your Xiaomi home screen after uninstalling an app? Shaking the phone while in edit mode can pull the remaining icons together and close those gaps automatically. The feature, called Shake to fill empty cells, sits hidden in the display settings and can be switched on or off.
Split Screen on Xiaomi Phones
Split screen lets you run two apps side by side on your Xiaomi phone, so you can chat while browsing or take notes while watching a video. MIUI offers more than one way to trigger it, and not every app supports it the same way. Knowing how it behaves helps you decide when it actually saves time.
Turn Automatic Date & Time On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone shows the wrong time after a trip or SIM swap, the automatic time sync is likely still active. Automatic date & time relies on network-provided time, which can lag or fail when signal is weak. Turning it off lets you set the clock manually instead.
Show SIM Card Messages
Old text messages from years back sometimes stay on the SIM card instead of moving into the phone's internal storage. If you swap the SIM into a new Xiaomi phone, those messages do not show up in your normal inbox automatically, so it looks like they are gone.
Missed Call Reminders: Turn On or Off
If a missed call slips by unnoticed until hours later, missed call reminders are probably switched off or set to repeat only once. MIUI can nudge you again about an unanswered call, and the number of repeats is adjustable. Without this setting active, a single missed call notification is easy to swipe away and forget.
Lock Home Screen Layout
If icons keep shifting position every time you delete an app or accidentally shake your phone, MIUI is still rearranging empty spaces on its own. Locking the layout stops that automatic reshuffling and keeps every icon exactly where you placed it.
Turn Tap Sounds On or Off
Every tap on a button, the Back key, or a menu item triggers a short click sound on your Xiaomi phone. If that noise gets distracting during calls, meetings, or at night, the Tap sounds setting is behind it and can be switched off just as quickly as it can be turned back on.
Set Data Usage Warning Level
If you have already capped your monthly data plan on a Xiaomi phone, you might still get surprised when the limit hits without any heads-up. The warning level tells MIUI at what percentage of your data plan it should alert you before you run out.
Set a New Alarm
Waking up on time with a Xiaomi phone means finding the right spot to add a repeating schedule, a custom label, or a different ringtone for each alarm. Many users only set a one-off alarm and miss the options for weekday repetition, vibration, or automatic deletion after the alarm rings. Getting these details wrong means the alarm either fires on the wrong days or disappears after a single use when you actually wanted it daily.
Turn On or Off Reading Mode
If your Xiaomi phone throws a cold, blue-tinted glow at night, reading on it can feel harsh and even keep you awake longer. Reading mode warms up the display colors to ease eye strain, but a lot of people never find the toggle or the scheduling option. Without it set up correctly, the warmer tone never kicks in on its own when you need it.
Edit and Rearrange Quick Settings
If the toggle you need most sits at the bottom of the control center or is missing entirely, you have to scroll or swipe further every time you want to switch it on. MIUI lets you add, remove and reorder these quick settings tiles, but the edit option is easy to miss if you have never opened it before.
Change Keyboard Layout in MIUI
If your Xiaomi keyboard still types QWERTY while you actually need QWERTZ, AZERTY or another layout, every second word ends up misspelled. MIUI lets you switch or add layouts per language, including Dvorak, Colemak, Neo2 and a plain PC layout, but the setting is buried several menus deep inside the keyboard options. Handwriting input is listed there too, in case none of the fixed layouts match how you type.
Allow or Deny Do Not Disturb Access for Apps
When an app suddenly enables Do Not Disturb on its own, or a call app keeps muting notifications you actually want to see, a hidden system permission is usually behind it. On Xiaomi phones, individual apps can request permission to switch Do Not Disturb on or off, and that access is not always obvious from the app itself. Checking which apps hold this permission helps you regain control over your notifications.
Search Bar in Notification Shade
Pulling down the notification shade on a Xiaomi phone sometimes shows an extra search field at the top that you never asked for, or the opposite happens and you want that shortcut back. This toggle sits in Mi Browser, not in the notification settings where most people go looking for it. Without knowing that, the option seems to be missing entirely.
Archive a Conversation in Messages
When your chat overview gets cluttered with conversations you want to keep but do not check daily, the Messages list keeps showing all of them at the top. Archiving hides a conversation without deleting it, and you can bring it back anytime.
Delete an Alarm
If your Xiaomi phone keeps ringing at a time you no longer need, an old alarm is probably still sitting in the Clock app. Alarms pile up quickly once you set them for one-off events like flights or workouts, and they rarely get removed afterward. A cluttered alarm list also makes it harder to spot the one alarm you actually rely on every morning.
Turn On High Contrast Text
Thin system fonts in MIUI can blur together against busy wallpapers or in bright sunlight, which makes reading notifications and menus tiring. The High contrast text option adds a bold black outline around letters to separate them from the background. On several Xiaomi phones this switch sits in an experimental accessibility section, so it can behave slightly differently between apps.
Change SIM PIN
The PIN that comes preset on a new SIM card is rarely one you can memorize, and typing the wrong code repeatedly locks the card. On Xiaomi phones you can swap it for a PIN you actually remember, but the option sits a few menus deep under network security settings rather than in the main lock screen settings.
Change Notification Sound
When every app on your Xiaomi phone plays the same generic chime, spotting an important message in a stack of notifications gets tricky. MIUI lets you pick a different tone per notification type, and if you run two SIM cards you can even split the sound by line. The tricky part is finding where this setting actually lives, since it is buried a few taps below the general Sound menu.
Restore a Local Backup
If you deleted an app or lost data on your Xiaomi phone, you don't need a full factory reset to get it back. MIUI keeps local backups separate from Google and Xiaomi Cloud backups, and picking the wrong one often leaves apps or settings missing. Knowing which backup type actually contains your data saves time before you start the restore.
Turn Best Photo Marks On or Off
If your Gallery keeps flagging one photo out of a burst as the best shot, MIUI is comparing similar images and tagging the sharpest or best-exposed one automatically. Some users find this helpful for sorting large photo batches, others just want a clean gallery without extra labels. The setting controls whether this comparison runs at all.