Switch Between Browser Tabs
Comparing prices or articles across several websites gets confusing fast if you cannot jump between open pages in Mi Browser. On Xiaomi phones the tab overview is easy to miss, so people end up closing and reopening pages instead of switching between them directly.
Set a Button Shortcut for Split Screen
Opening split screen through the recent apps menu takes several taps and only works if you can find the small split-screen icon on the app card. If your phone uses button navigation instead of gestures, there is a faster way: a long press on one of the navigation buttons can trigger split screen directly.
Add Contacts to a Group
Groups on your Xiaomi phone stay empty until you actually assign contacts to them. You can add people either from a single contact's profile or from inside the group itself, and mixing up the two methods is where most confusion starts. Knowing which screen controls group membership saves you from re-adding the same contact twice.
Block a Number from Call History
Spam calls from fake lottery winnings or gambling subscriptions keep showing up in your call log even after you hang up. On Xiaomi phones, blocking a caller straight from that log is often faster than adding them manually through Contacts. Here's what triggers the block option and where it actually lives in the Phone app.
Change the Default Keyboard
Installed a new keyboard app on your Xiaomi phone but typing still opens Gboard? MIUI keeps the previous keyboard active until you manually switch the default under Languages & input. Without that step, the new keyboard stays listed but never takes over text fields.
Factory Reset via Settings
When your Xiaomi phone gets stuck in a lag loop, refuses to accept a new owner, or you just want to wipe it before selling it, a full factory reset is often the only clean fix. The Erase all data function removes every account, app, and system setting from internal storage without a way to undo it. Before you start, it helps to know exactly what gets deleted and what stays untouched.
Add a Contact Shortcut to the Home Screen
Calling the same person every day shouldn't require opening the Phone app, searching your contacts and tapping through to their number each time. On MIUI you can pin a direct contact shortcut to your home screen so a call or message starts in just two taps. This helps most with family, coworkers or anyone else you dial constantly.
Turn Anti Banding On or Off
If photos or videos of screens, TVs or fluorescent lights show dark stripes or a flickering pattern, the camera sensor is reacting to the local power frequency. Xiaomi phones include an Anti banding option that compensates for this, but the wrong setting can make the flicker worse instead of better.
Add a Printer via IP Address or Wi-Fi Direct
If your printer does not show up automatically even though your phone and printer share the same Wi-Fi network, MIUI still lets you add it manually. This usually happens with older printers, devices on a different subnet, or printers that only support Wi-Fi Direct instead of standard network discovery. In that case you need to enter the printer's IP address yourself or switch on Wi-Fi Direct printing directly from the printing menu.
Create or Remove Dual Apps
Running two WhatsApp or Facebook accounts on one phone usually fails because those apps only allow a single login at a time. Dual apps gets around that by cloning the app into a second icon with its own data and notifications, fully separate from the original. Without setting this up, you are stuck logging out and back in every time you want to switch accounts.
Set the WiFi Hotspot Band
If your Xiaomi hotspot always connects on the slower 2.4GHz band, other devices lose out on faster 5GHz speeds. Not every phone or app picks the best signal automatically, so a laptop or smart TV might latch onto the weaker frequency even when 5GHz is available. Whether you can switch depends on the AP Band option being supported by your device.
Send an SMS Text Message
On a Xiaomi phone there is no separate SMS app or SMS folder, so every text lands in the same Messages inbox as MMS content. Attach a photo or video to a text and MIUI silently switches the format to MMS without asking you first. That makes it hard to tell which messages actually went out as plain SMS and which ones used mobile data as MMS.
Pocket Mode in the Camera App
If your phone's camera keeps opening or snapping photos while it's still in your pocket, stray touches on the screen are usually the cause. Pocket mode locks the touchscreen once the sensor detects the phone is stored away, blocking accidental swipes and taps. When the camera reacts to pocket movement or the screen stays unresponsive after you pull the phone out, this setting is worth checking.
Delete Learned Words and Data
If the built-in Xiaomi keyboard keeps suggesting outdated or wrong words, the learned word database is usually the cause. This data builds up over time from everything you type and can make autocorrect feel stuck on old habits. Clearing it resets suggestions without touching your other settings.
Turn Off Wi-Fi Hotspot Automatically
Leaving the personal hotspot active after every connected device disconnects quietly drains battery on Xiaomi phones. MIUI includes a setting that shuts the hotspot down on its own once nothing is using it, but most owners never notice it exists.
Answer an Incoming Call on the Lock Screen
If tapping the green phone icon does not pick up the call on your Xiaomi phone, you are likely missing the swipe gesture MIUI expects. The lock screen call button reacts to a drag motion, not a simple tap, so a short or sideways swipe leaves the phone ringing until it drops to voicemail. This mainly trips up people switching from a brand that uses tap-to-answer instead of swipe-to-answer.
Create a Local Backup
Switching to a new Xiaomi phone or resetting the current one often means losing app data, home screen layout and system settings if no backup exists beforehand. Cloud backup depends on a stable connection and free Xiaomi account storage, which is not always available. A local backup avoids both issues by saving everything directly to the device storage instead.
Save Previous Camera Mode
If your Xiaomi camera always opens in Photo mode even though you shot a video or used Portrait last time, the app is not storing your last selection. This happens when the option that remembers your last shooting mode is switched off, forcing every launch back to the default. Toggling it changes how the camera behaves on the next launch, not just during the current session.
App Lock: Lock or Unlock Apps
Anyone who picks up your Xiaomi phone can open sensitive apps like banking, messaging or gallery without extra protection beyond the screen lock. App Lock adds a second barrier for individual apps, separate from your device PIN or pattern. Without it enabled, apps stay accessible the moment the phone itself is unlocked.
Block Offensive Words in Keyboard Suggestions
If the keyboard on your Xiaomi phone keeps suggesting swear words or curses while typing, autocorrect is picking them up as valid entries. A dedicated filter in the keyboard settings controls whether these words show up in suggestions at all. Turning it on or off changes what the prediction bar offers, not what you can actually type.
Assign a Contact to a Speed Dial Number
If holding down a number on the dial pad does nothing on your Xiaomi phone, no contact has been linked to that speed dial slot yet. Speed dial only works once you connect a number manually to a saved contact. Without that step, the quick dial button stays empty and no call goes through.
Remove a Linked Account
If chats, photos or documents suddenly disappear after cleaning up accounts on your Xiaomi phone, the sync connection for that account was likely removed rather than just logged out. Google, WhatsApp, Facebook and similar accounts all sit under the same accounts module, and removing one can wipe locally cached data tied to it. Knowing which account type you are touching matters before you tap confirm.
Turn On/Off Always-on Display
If your Xiaomi screen stays completely black in standby, you might be missing the time, battery level, or notifications at a glance. This depends on the Always-on display feature, which only works on Xiaomi models with an OLED panel, not on LCD screens.
Clear App Cache
If an app on your Xiaomi phone keeps crashing, freezing, or throwing error messages, leftover cache files are often the reason. Over time these temporary files pile up and can overlap or corrupt each other, causing an app to behave oddly even though nothing else changed. Clearing the cache removes that clutter without touching your saved data or settings.