10 secret functions on Xiaomi smartphones, that you might not even know about

Ru Ua

Xiaomi smartphones recently took not the last place on the market of mobile devices, nowadays I meet owners of smartphones, made by this manufacturer, more and more often. And this is completely well deserved, because such a devices have excellent, if not to say perfect correlation of price and quality. Today we will disclose some tricks, that have majority of Xiaomi smartphones, running on Android 5.0 with the proprietary shell MIUI 8.

Well, let’s review the details of today’s Life hacks for Xiaomi smartphones, that we have prepared for your attention.

Wallpaper Carousel

As soon as I picked up Xiaomi smartphone and started to work with it – unusual button in the top right corner of the lock screen, immediately rushed into my eyes. Apparently, that button starts a very interesting function – Wallpaper Carousel.

Judging by the name, it becomes immediately clear that after activation of this function, user will be able to change the wallpapers on the lock screen. In other words, when you turn on the Wallpaper Carousel feature on Xiaomi smartphone, you will get access to the list of lock screen wallpapers from popular publishers of graphic content.

I almost forgot to warn you – this function works properly only when your gadget is connected to the Internet.

A screenshot of three fingers on the screen

Of course, almost every user knows how to make a screenshot on Xiaomi smartphones (same way as on majority of other gadgets), user just needs to press and hold simultaneously the power button and the volume down button. Another famous way to make screenshot is to pull the shutter down and press the corresponding button on the switch panel.

I can bet, that another way to make screenshot – by making Swype with three fingers down is not well known to everyone. This function usually is not activated by default. In order to activate it, open Settings/Additional Settings/Button and gesture shortcuts and enable this feature here.

Setting of user’s picture as Wallpaper

It’s cool when developers are thinking about users in advance and install a few different pictures, that can be installed as wallpaper, into the original firmware. But what if the user wants to set his own picture as a Wallpaper on the main screen or lock screen?

Fortunately, I can share with you two ways that will help to set your own pictures as Wallpaper on Xiaomi smartphone. As you probably guessed, the first method implies a long press on the menu button (this method is provided by the firmware by default, in case if you didn’t change the menu button settings). After mentioned long press, user will enter the menu, that allows to configure settings of the desktop, widgets, wallpapers and effects. Here, press on the Wallpaper button and you will see many standard, factory pictures. But you need to scroll it all to the left until the very end, where you will see the button «Others», and then you need to follow the usual procedure: select the File Manager and choose the picture desired. After that, a pop-up window appears with the question on what screen would you like to install that picture, this is up to you.

The second way is a bit different, in order to proceed go to the Settings/Wallpapers and do what you need – change the Wallpapers of the desktop or the lock screen. In the bottom right corner you will find a little circle with a plus sign, with help of that you may set your picture as Wallpaper. By the way, there you also can find mentioned earlier settings of Wallpaper Carousel.

Quick ball

One more useful feature that not many people are familiar with. To enable this feature, go to the Settings/Additional Settings/Quick ball and activate it. After this a small transparent button will appear on your screen, by pressing of which toy will get access to five functional buttons: home, menu, lock screen, screenshot and back.

Dual apps (Cloning applications)

That’s right, cloning of your applications, what does it mean? Imagine that you have two accounts on the same social network and for entering one or another account, you need log in and log out every time. Now this problem is solved. Company Xiaomi is taking care of about this problem and giving us opportunity to copy your apps. Correct, now you can safely use one application for different accounts. In order to make a clone of application, you need to go to Settings/Dual apps and choose needed application for cloning.

After cloning application another icon with this application will appear on the desktop, but it will have a special mark.

Time-lapse and Slow-motion – camera functions

Can you imagine how colorful videos you can get if to speed up it slightly (by getting Time lapse) or to slow it down?

Also, how amazing would be to find out that such functions do not require usage of computer or additional software. This is possible because Xiaomi smartphones have such modes in camera settings. Here there is one moment, in order to make a slow-motion video, you need to change the video quality on HD instead of FHD in Camera settings.

Now you have a camera, that can make a Time lapse or Slow-motion shooting without any problems.

Not to give too many questions:

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Backup and reset

This section of settings may help not only to drop your device to the factory settings, but also to undertake more interesting things. Using this section, Xiaomi smartphones can back up the system settings, account data (SMS, call log) and applications. Imagine, how nicely I was surprised when I completely reinstalled my smartphone from the official to the custom firmware, entered the Settings and made a complete renovation of all the system settings! Of course, I have made a backup before reloading of the phone, but still, I can’t even imagine how it’s all became possible with Xiaomi smartphone only. Call log, SMS log, notes, all settings: WiFi, radio, weather, cameras and stuff – everything remained on place.

Keyboard

What can be not clear here? But let’s look closer guys, because here you can find some interesting tricks. I have a question for you, or even two questions: how do you move the cursor on the screen and how do you delete wrong words? On s Xiaomi smartphones such actions can be held much easier. For example, I found out easy way to delete needless words – using a gesture from the delete button, and for moving the cursor – using a gesture on the space bar. Trust me, it makes typing on the smartphone much easier. To start recognizing of mentioned gestures on your smartphone’s keyboard, you need to go to Settings/Additional Settings/Language and input/Gboard keyboard settings/Glide typing and in this section, you can activate these magic gestures.

LED indicator (Notification light)

Probably this function is well known for most users, but anyways I’ve decided to mention it. Xiaomi smartphones have tricolor LED indicator installed, that, as you may have already noticed, lit in different colors. Have you heard that it’s possible to set different colors for notifications, calendar, missed calls or messages from apps by yourself? That’s exactly what I’ve done, now for missed calls – I have a green color of indicator; for notifications – blue color; for Facebook messages – yellow color and for messages from WhatsApp – purple one, etc. Now the most important thing is not to get confused. Where can I set up the color of the LED indicator? Go to Settings/Additional Settings/Notification light – and here change settings of LED color. To be fair, I would like to notice that each application settings shall be configured individually.

One-handed Mode

Have you ever tried to use smartphone with diagonal more than 5 inches with one hand? Did you like it? Seriously, it is not easy at all, especially if you have a small palm! Fortunately, the Chinese friends anticipated this problem. Of course, your smartphone will not transform in a smaller version, but developers added an excellent function/

What does it mean? This means that in case of urgent need of using of your device with one hand (for example, while driving or carrying a heavy bag), you can activate one-handed operation mode with a light thumb movement (Settings/Additional Settings/One-handed Mode). For this purpose, just move your thumb to the side from the central button, placed on bottom touch panel buttons. If you have made everything correct – you will see pop-up window with question: Do you want to start one-handed control mode? After confirmation, the usable area of the screen will immediately decrease (up to 4 inches by default). User can change this size in the settings if he wants to reduce or increase it.

Well, now you will see how easier it makes using of your smartphone with one hand! To exit this mode, just log out or tape on the screen outside the zone (beyond the reduced area).

Guys, don’t judge us strictly if many of these tricks were well known for you earlier. Maybe someone will find it very useful, and if this is true – we have not wasted our time by posting this. Give your feedback in the comments below, if this article helped you to solve some issues.