Turn On or Off Bluetooth Tethering
If your laptop or tablet has no free USB port, sharing your Xiaomi phone's mobile data over a cable is not an option. Bluetooth tethering lets you pass the connection wirelessly, but it needs to be paired and switched on first, and many users miss the toggle because it sits inside the hotspot settings rather than the Bluetooth menu itself.
Blur Effect for App Previews
When you swipe through recent apps on your Xiaomi phone, the preview thumbnails can show account balances, chat messages or other personal details in plain sight. MIUI lets you blur individual app previews so text and layout become unreadable at a glance. The setting works per app, which means it is easy to forget for apps you add later, such as a new banking or messaging app.
Turn Auto-download MMS On or Off
If picture or video attachments in text messages download automatically on your Xiaomi phone, MMS auto-download is turned on by default. This can eat through your mobile data plan fast, especially with large video files. Switching the feature off gives you control over when attachments actually get downloaded.
Allow or Deny Apps to Modify System Settings
Some apps on your Xiaomi phone quietly hold permission to change system settings like brightness, do-not-disturb or notification behavior, even after you stopped using them. If a random app is toggling display or sound settings on its own, this hidden permission is usually the cause. You can review and revoke it for individual apps without affecting others.
Turn On or Off the Pop-up Blocker
Banner ads and other pop-up windows keep breaking the flow of pages loaded in Mi Browser on Xiaomi phones. Turning off the pop-up blocker sometimes helps when a site relies on a pop-up window to show a login form, a coupon code or a download link that otherwise never appears. Switching it back on afterward keeps the ad clutter away again.
Turn Google Location History On or Off
If Google Maps keeps suggesting places based on where you have been, or your Timeline fills up with stops you never meant to save, Location History is still active in the background. On Xiaomi phones this tracking can run even when no Google app is currently open, which surprises a lot of users checking their data usage or battery drain.
Adjust Screen Brightness
If the display on your Xiaomi phone looks too dark indoors or blinds you at night, the brightness slider is set wrong or auto-brightness is fighting your manual changes. A screen running at full brightness all day is also one of the fastest ways to drain the battery. Getting the level right matters both for comfort and battery life.
Create a Contact Group
If you want to text several friends at once or hear a different ringtone when work calls versus family, MIUI needs your contacts sorted into groups first. Without a group, every message goes out individually and every caller sounds the same. Xiaomi handles this through a labeling feature inside the Contacts app that most people never notice.
Mirror Navigation Bar Buttons
If the back button and recent apps button feel like they are on the wrong side of the navigation bar, your Xiaomi phone likely has the default three-button layout active. Left-handed users especially notice this, since reaching for the back key on the left edge feels unnatural. A hidden toggle lets you flip the order of these two buttons without changing anything else on the home button.
Auto-Update Download Settings
If your Xiaomi phone keeps downloading system updates in the background without asking, it can eat into your data plan or fill up storage at the worst moment. On the other hand, if updates never download automatically, you might miss important security patches for weeks. This behavior is controlled by a single toggle buried inside the MIUI version screen, separate from the mobile data download option next to it.
Delete a Conversation
Deleting a text thread one message at a time on a Xiaomi phone takes forever once a conversation has piled up over months. Long threads eat into storage and clutter your inbox, and most people never notice the shortcut MIUI offers for removing a whole conversation at once. Once you confirm the deletion, the messages are gone for good, so it helps to know exactly where to tap first.
Send a Group Message (SMS/MMS)
When you try to text several people at once on a Xiaomi phone, it is not always clear whether picking multiple names in Contacts actually creates a real group thread. MIUI also switches silently between SMS and MMS depending on whether photos or long text are attached, so replies can end up scattered across separate one-on-one chats instead of a single conversation.
Turn MMS Read Receipts On or Off
If contacts can see the moment they read your MMS messages, or you cannot tell whether your own texts got opened, the read receipt option is likely misconfigured on your Xiaomi phone. This setting works separately from standard SMS delivery reports and needs its own toggle inside the messaging app. On Dual SIM devices, each SIM line can carry a different receipt setting, which often explains why the behavior seems inconsistent between conversations.
Turn Off TalkBack on Xiaomi
If your Xiaomi phone reads out everything you tap and single taps only select items instead of opening them, TalkBack is active. This screen reader changes how touch works across the whole system, which makes normal navigation confusing if you never meant to turn it on.
Turn On/Off Ascending Alarm Volume
If your Xiaomi alarm starts at full volume and jolts you awake instead of easing you into the morning, the ascending volume option is likely switched off. Some users prefer the opposite: a gentle ramp-up feels too quiet to wake them at all. Either way, this sits in a separate alarm setting that many people never notice.
Automatic App Updates Settings
If your Xiaomi phone only refreshes apps once it finds a Wi-Fi network, updates can lag behind for days when you are mostly on mobile data. This behavior comes from the Play Store auto-update setting, which defaults to Wi-Fi only on most Xiaomi devices. You can switch it to update over any network or turn automatic updates off completely.
Set the Action for When Your Data Plan Runs Out
If your mobile data suddenly stops working before the month is over, MIUI may already be cutting it off automatically once you hit your set limit. Some people only want a heads-up instead of losing their connection outright, but that only works if the right action is selected in the data usage settings. Without checking this setting, you can end up with dead mobile data at the worst possible moment.
Add Apps to a Folder on the Home Screen
Dragging one app at a time into a folder gets tedious once your home screen fills up with dozens of icons. Xiaomi phones running MIUI let you group several apps into a single folder in one move instead of repeating the drag-and-drop for each icon. If you only know the old hold-and-drag method, sorting a full app drawer can take much longer than it should.
Find a Word on a Webpage
Scrolling through a long article on your phone just to spot one specific term wastes time, especially when the page has no search box of its own. Mi Browser hides a page search tool that jumps straight to every match of a keyword. Without it, you are stuck pinching, zooming and reading line by line to find what you need.
Turn Emoji Suggestions On or Off
If your Xiaomi keyboard keeps popping up matching emoji while you type and it gets in the way, or you want those suggestions but they never show up, the setting behind this is Show emoji suggestions inside the keyboard's text correction options. Many users only stumble onto this toggle while browsing keyboard settings and are not sure what it actually changes. Depending on how it is set, MIUI either offers a matching emoji for recognized words or stays completely quiet.
Check Battery Usage Stats per App
If your Xiaomi phone drains faster than usual, it helps to see which app or function is actually responsible before you start disabling things at random. MIUI keeps a detailed breakdown of battery usage, separating screen time, standby drain, and individual apps, but this overview sits a few taps deep in the settings. Without checking these numbers, you're only guessing at what's eating your charge.
App Download Preference (Play Store)
If apps on your Xiaomi phone start downloading over mobile data even while connected to Wi-Fi, the Play Store's download preference is likely set to Over any network. This setting decides whether new app installs and updates use any connection, Wi-Fi only, or ask before each download. Getting it wrong quickly eats into a limited monthly data plan.
Flip to Silence Ringer: Turn On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone keeps ringing loudly even when you quickly flip it face-down during a call, the Flip to silence ringer feature is likely turned off. When active, flipping the device mutes the ringtone, stops the vibration and turns off the notification light instantly. The caller still hears it ringing though - the call is not rejected or sent to voicemail.
Delete a Contact
Contacts opened from Calls or Messages on a Xiaomi phone are the same entries stored in the Contacts app, so removing one wipes it out everywhere at once. Syncing with your Google Account does not stop the local delete from going through, and once it is confirmed there is no built-in way to bring the entry back.