Restrict Floating Notifications in Do Not Disturb
If your Xiaomi phone keeps popping up banners while Do Not Disturb is active, incoming alerts are still showing as floating notifications instead of staying silent. The messages themselves are not lost, they simply arrive quietly in the background, but the pop-ups still interrupt whatever you are doing. This setting decides whether MIUI shows those floating banners while DND is on.
Turn On/Off Call Forwarding
Calls landing in voicemail even though your phone never rang usually means call forwarding is already active in the background. On many Xiaomi phones the network sets forwarding for 'busy', 'unanswered' and 'unreachable' cases by default, so you might not notice it until a call disappears. Each of these forwarding rules can be switched on or off separately, or redirected to a different number entirely.
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.
Move Photos or Videos into an Album
Photos and videos pile up in one long Gallery feed until finding a specific shot means endless scrolling. When you try to sort them into an album, Gallery stops you with a choice between moving or copying the file, and picking the wrong option can leave duplicates behind or remove the original from where you expected it.
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.
Volume Buttons Function for Camera
Pressing the volume buttons in the Xiaomi camera app triggers the shutter or a countdown timer by default, not zoom. If you want the buttons to handle something else while framing a shot, the assignment can be changed in the camera settings. Right now only two options are available for this shortcut.
Change Default Dialer App
If you install a new phone or call app on your Xiaomi device, calls may still open in the standard MIUI Dialer instead of your preferred app. This happens because MIUI keeps its own dialer set as default until you switch it manually in the app settings. Third-party dialer apps from the Play Store only take over once you assign them as default there.
Mark All Messages as Read
When unread badges pile up across several conversations in the Messages app, tapping into each thread just to clear the counter gets tedious fast. On MIUI there is a faster way to clear every unread marker at once, without opening every single chat.
Force Stop an Unresponsive App
When an app keeps running in the background and refuses to close normally, closing the recent apps card often does nothing. Force stopping shuts the process down completely, but it can also interrupt saved data or active downloads.
Turn Full Screen Mode On or Off for Specific Apps
When an app stretches its interface awkwardly across the full display or crops out buttons at the edges, full screen mode is usually forcing content into the wrong aspect ratio. Xiaomi lets you switch this behavior on or off separately for each installed app. The system also flags which apps handle full screen well and which ones do not, but that recommendation does not always match what you actually want.
Change Preferred Network Type
If your phone shows no or barely any 4G/LTE signal in certain spots, calls drop and data stalls even though older 3G or 2G networks are still available nearby. The Preferred network type setting decides which mobile network your SIM tries first, and the wrong choice can leave you stuck searching for a signal instead of connecting to one that actually works.
Turn Quick Ball On or Off
If the floating navigation bubble is missing from your Xiaomi screen edge, you probably switched off Quick Ball at some point. This shortcut button gives fast access to actions like locking the screen, capturing a screenshot, or switching between recent apps without touching the physical buttons. When it disappears or starts blocking games and videos, it usually comes down to one setting hidden inside Additional settings.
Manage the Personal Dictionary
If your keyboard keeps autocorrecting a name, brand term, or slang word you actually want to type, MIUI's personal dictionary is the setting that controls this behavior. Without an entry there, the keyboard falls back to its built-in wordlist and ignores your preferred spelling or shortcut for longer phrases.
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.
Add a Keyboard Language
Typing in a second language on your Xiaomi phone turns into a mess of red underlines and wrong autocorrect suggestions when the keyboard only knows one language. Messages, emails, and notes in that language become slower to write because every word gets flagged or swapped for something else. The built-in keyboard supports multiple languages at once, but only if you add them manually first.
Add a Fingerprint
If you can only unlock your Xiaomi phone with one specific finger, you probably registered just a single fingerprint during setup. MIUI lets you store several fingerprints so both your left and right hand work for unlocking or confirming payments. Each saved fingerprint can also get its own name, which helps when the device is shared with family.
Allow Calls During Do Not Disturb
If Do Not Disturb mode is silencing calls you actually want to receive, a call filter is deciding who gets through and who gets blocked. Xiaomi phones let you choose between allowing calls from anyone, only contacts, only starred contacts, or nobody at all while the mode is active. Missed calls from family or work contacts usually trace back to this exact setting being set too strictly.
Set a Default Home Screen
Tapping the home button always drops you on the wrong panel, especially if you keep several home screens or widget pages active on your Xiaomi phone. MIUI lets you pin one specific screen as the default target, but this setting is easy to miss and gets reset after a launcher change or update. Without it, the home button just returns to whichever screen you last viewed.
Set a Default Launcher on Xiaomi
Installed a new launcher on your Xiaomi phone but the home screen still opens with the MIUI launcher? Android keeps using the previous launcher until you tell the system which app should manage your home screen, widgets and app shortcuts. Without changing the default app assignment, your new launcher stays installed but inactive.
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.
Hide or Show Notification Content for Locked Apps
Locking an app on your Xiaomi phone stops others from opening it, but the notification banner can still show the full message text on the lock screen. That means a locked banking app or messenger can leak private content even while the app itself stays protected. Xiaomi lets you control notification previews separately for every app you have locked, without switching notifications off entirely.
Assign a Custom Ringtone to a Contact
If every incoming call sounds the same, you have to check the screen to know who is calling before you pick up. On Xiaomi phones, the default ringtone applies to all contacts unless you override it manually for specific people.
Change Call Waiting Notification Sound
If the call waiting tone plays continuously instead of just a short beep, or a second incoming call barely gets your attention, the notification style set for call waiting is likely the cause. Xiaomi phones let you pick between a single tone, a repeating tone, or a tone combined with vibration, and the wrong choice makes overlapping calls easy to miss or annoying to handle.
Set Swipe-from-Edge Action in Mi Browser
Swiping in from the left or right edge of the screen in Mi Browser normally sends you back or forward a page, and that can get in the way if you actually meant to switch tabs. Xiaomi lets you reassign this edge gesture in Mi Browser or turn it off completely if it keeps triggering by accident.