Set Up Switch Access
If tapping the touchscreen is difficult or impossible, everyday tasks like opening apps, scrolling, or typing on a Xiaomi phone can become a real barrier. Switch Access lets people with motor disabilities control the phone through one or more external switches instead of direct touch. These switches connect over USB or pair via Bluetooth and take over selection, scrolling, and text entry.
Change Keyboard Theme (Language & Input)
If the Gboard keyboard on your Xiaomi phone still shows the default gray background, the theme setting has never been switched. This only changes the visual layout - colors, gradients or picture backgrounds - and has no effect on autocorrect or typing speed. The key borders can also be turned on or off separately from the overall theme.
Show or Hide Lock Screen Notification Content
If your Xiaomi phone shows full message text on the lock screen, anyone picking up the phone can read private notifications before it is even unlocked. If content stays hidden instead, you only see that something arrived without knowing what it says or who sent it. This behavior is controlled by a single notification format setting in MIUI, separate from each app's own notification permissions.
Assign Google Assistant to the Power Button
On some Xiaomi phones a short press of the Power button opens the power menu instead of Google Assistant, even though full screen gesture navigation is active. This happens because the button shortcut for Google Assistant sits in a separate settings section and stays off by default. Without enabling it, you still need the home button gesture or voice command to wake the Assistant.
Change Home or Lock Screen Theme
If your Home screen, Lock screen, and app icons suddenly look inconsistent after switching themes, MIUI applied only part of the new theme's assets. This happens when a saved theme only covers some elements, like Lock screen and System, but skips Icons. Picking the wrong theme ('Classic' vs 'Limitless') or a corrupted download can also leave icons untouched while wallpapers change.
Turn Call Waiting On or Off
If you are already on a call and a second call comes in on your Xiaomi phone, a tone and a pop-up usually appear. When Call waiting is switched off, that second caller hears a busy signal instead and nothing shows up on your screen. With Dual SIM, this setting applies per SIM card, so one line can behave differently from the other.
Turn Camera Grid Lines On or Off
If your photos keep coming out tilted or the horizon never lines up straight, you are probably shooting without any framing guide. Xiaomi's camera app can overlay a 3x3 grid that helps you keep verticals upright and place the horizon on a clean line. Without it, minor tilts are easy to miss on a small screen and only show up later when you check the shot on a bigger display.
Change Camera Picture Quality
If your camera storage fills up fast or photos take too long to share, the picture quality setting in the MIUI camera app is often the reason. Xiaomi's camera defaults to a high resolution that produces large files, even when you only need a quick snapshot. Switching between High, Standard, and Low lets you balance sharpness against file size for each situation.
Turn Wi-Fi On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone won't connect to your home or public network, Wi-Fi might simply be switched off in the background. Leaving Wi-Fi active around the clock also drains the battery faster, especially when no network is in range. Many users struggle to find the toggle after a system update moved it inside a different menu.
Turn Notification Badges On or Off Per App
A red dot keeps sitting above an app icon even after you have opened every message inside it. On Xiaomi phones this badge is a separate switch from the notification itself, so muting an app does not always remove the counter. If the dot never clears, or shows up for an app you barely use, the badge toggle for that specific app is still turned on.
Turn an Alarm On or Off
Alarms you already set on your Xiaomi phone stay stored even after you switch them off, but the toggle in the Clock app is easy to miss. If an alarm keeps ringing when you do not need it, or stays silent when you want it active, the switch next to the entry is probably in the wrong position. This affects your wake-up routine and any reminders you set up in MIUI.
Add Update Shortcut to Home Screen
Checking for a new MIUI version usually means digging through several settings screens on a Xiaomi phone. A home screen shortcut skips that detour and opens the update check directly. Without it, casual users often forget to check for updates at all.
Remove App from Folder
When a folder on your Xiaomi home screen fills up with apps you barely touch, finding the one you actually use often becomes annoying. This happens a lot with apps like Messenger or WhatsApp, which start in a folder but end up needing a spot of their own once you rely on them daily. MIUI lets you pull an app back out without deleting anything.
Sound and Vibration for Calendar Reminders
If birthday or appointment reminders in the Calendar app stay silent, or if they buzz and ring when you would rather have them quiet, the notification settings for that app are usually the cause. On Xiaomi phones this is controlled separately from the general system sound, so a muted phone does not automatically mean the calendar stays quiet too. Checking the dedicated Calendar notification options clears up most missed or unwanted reminder alerts.
Turn Google Play Protect On or Off
If your Xiaomi keeps blocking app installs from outside the Play Store, or you get repeated malware warnings for apps you know are safe, Google Play Protect is usually behind it. The feature scans every app before and after installation and can flag legitimate apps as risky. You can check its current status and switch the scanning behavior directly from the security settings.
Turn On/Off Wi-Fi Calling
Weak signal at home, underground, or in a concrete building often causes dropped calls on a Xiaomi phone, even when Wi-Fi shows full bars. Wi-Fi calling routes voice calls through your wireless network instead of the mobile network, but only works if your carrier actually supports it. If the toggle is missing from your SIM settings, an unsupported plan or outdated carrier profile is usually the reason.
Double Tap to Wake or Sleep Screen
Waking your Xiaomi phone only works by pressing the power button, and double-tapping the display does nothing. This happens when 'Double tap to wake or turn off screen' is switched off in the lock screen settings, so a quick glance at the clock or notifications requires a full button press instead.
Rename a Home Screen Folder
A newly created folder on your Xiaomi home screen often just carries a generic label like 'Folder' or picks up the name of the first app you dropped into it. That makes it hard to tell at a glance whether it holds your shopping apps, finance tools, or games. Once you have several folders sitting next to each other, a clear name is the only thing that keeps your screen readable.
Reset Wi-Fi, Mobile Data & Bluetooth
If Wi-Fi keeps dropping, mobile data stops working after a SIM swap, or paired Bluetooth devices refuse to reconnect, corrupted network profiles are often the real cause. Switching a connection off and on rarely fixes these deeper configuration conflicts. A full network reset clears every saved Wi-Fi password, paired device, and mobile data setting in one pass.
Enlarge the Mouse Pointer
When you plug a USB mouse or similar pointing accessory into a Xiaomi phone, the on-screen pointer often stays tiny and hard to track. Large mouse pointer is a dedicated Accessibility option built for exactly this situation, especially useful for anyone with limited vision. Without enabling it, you end up guessing where the cursor sits on a crowded screen.
Change Display Size
If text and icons on your Xiaomi phone look too small or too cramped, the Display size setting is usually the cause. It scales both the interface and the font size together, which can push app shortcuts around on your home screen until you rearrange them.
Turn On or Off Find My Device
If your Xiaomi phone goes missing and Google's Find My Device search comes up empty, the tracking toggle is probably switched off in your privacy settings. This setting decides whether your phone keeps reporting its last known location to your Google Account. Without it enabled beforehand, there is no location history to fall back on once the phone is actually lost.
Show or Hide the Emoji Switch Key
If you type a lot of emojis, switching between the language globe and the emoji picker can slow you down on the MIUI keyboard. The globe icon and the emoji key share the same spot, so only one of them shows on the keyboard row at a time. Turning on the emoji switch key swaps that icon while quick language switching still works by holding the space bar.
Enterprise Mode
If you spot Enterprise mode buried in your Xiaomi settings and have no idea what switched it on, you are not alone. The feature is built for companies that want to restrict which apps or websites an employee device can reach, and in some setups it can also report device activity back to an administrator. On a private phone that was never enrolled by a company, this toggle usually just sits there unused, which raises the question of what it is doing and whether it is safe to leave alone.