How to put a number on the keyboard Xiaomi: the complete guide

Modern Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones offer users many ways to type in text, but the standard Gboard keyboard, which is preinstalled on most devices, can sometimes confuse beginners. Often there is a situation when you type a password or fill out a form you need to quickly enter numbers, and the screen displays only letters. This is not a breakage, but only a feature of the layout setting.

It’s easy to figure out how to put a number on a Xiaomi keyboard if you know where to look for hidden switches or how to change the settings of the app itself. In this article, we’ll go into detail all the methods for switching between letters and numbers, and also look at how to add a separate digital bar for permanent access.

Many users do not even realize that the standard input interface can be completely redesigned to suit their needs, you can adjust the height of the buttons, change the topic and, most importantly, add a line with numbers so that you do not waste time switching modes every time.

Quick switching of input modes

The easiest way to enter numbers is to temporarily switch the layout. The standard Gboard keyboard, which is the de facto standard for the MIUI and HyperOS shell, has special buttons for switching to the number and character mode, usually located in the bottom row of buttons, next to the space.

To enter a number, just press the button with the symbol?123 or =<>. After that, the letters will change to numbers and punctuation marks. To return, the ABC button is used. If you need to enter only one or two characters, this method is most effective.

• 🔢 Press the?123 button in the bottom row to go to the numbers.
• 🔙 Use the button. ABC letterback.
• ⌨️ Press the button with the symbol (such as a dot) to see the spelling options.
• 🔄 Switch between swipe languages by space.

⚠️ Warning: If the layout switch buttons are missing, you may have steamed or one-handed mode activated. Try resizing the keyboard window or disabling these features in the settings.

In some cases, the standard button layout can be changed by third-party themes or system updates. If you don't see the familiar characters, it's worth checking if dictation or handwriting mode is turned on, which completely changes the interface.

Configuring a permanent digital string

For those who often work with numbers, constantly switching between letters and numbers can become tedious. Fortunately, Xiaomi’s keyboard settings have a feature that allows you to output a row with numbers above letters, which eliminates the need to change the input mode every time.

To activate this option, go to the system settings. Find the Additional Settings section, then select Language and Enter. In the list of active keyboards, select Gboard (or the one you use). Next, go to the Settings menu and find the Number Panel (or "Digital String"). Move the slider to the active position.

After activating this function, an additional line with numbers from 0 to 9 will appear next to the letters YTsuken or QWERTY. This greatly speeds up the set of phone numbers, SMS codes or numerical passwords. This line can disappear in text-only fields, but in most applications it will be available constantly.

It’s worth noting that having a digital string can visually reduce the area for letters, which is important to consider on smartphones with a small screen. However, on modern models of Redmi Note or Xiaomi Mi space is usually enough.

Use of Mi keyboard and third-party analogues

Although Gboard is the standard, Xiaomi smartphones often pre-installed their own design, the Mi Keyboard. It has its own interface and logic. It also has the ability to configure the output of numbers, but the path to settings may differ. Mi Keyboard often uses the 123 button in the corner of the screen.

If you don't like standard solutions, Google Play offers a lot of alternatives, popular apps like SwiftKey or Yandex Keyboard provide more flexible settings, like SwiftKey, which allows you to configure swipes to quickly enter numbers without switching layouts, which is a unique feature of this engine.

When you install a third-party keyboard, Android will ask for full access permission, so that the app can see the text you're typing and suggest corrections, and without that permission, the keyboard won't be able to work.

Solving problems with the display of numbers

Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the numbers are not entered at all or the keyboard is not behaving correctly, this can be due to a software failure in the Google Input application or a conflict of system processes.

To do this, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find Gboard (or Google Enter). Select Memory and click Clear Cache. Don't confuse it with Clear Everything, as this will delete your dictionaries and your learning history.

⚠️ Warning: Clearing the keyboard data will reset all your personal settings, learned words and saved passwords. Use this option only if clearing the cache has not helped.

Another cause of problems may be the outdated version of the app: Go to the Google Play Store, find your keyboard and check for updates. Developers regularly release patches that fix compatibility bugs with new versions of Android.

If the problem persists, try restarting the device. There are often background processes in MIUI that can block the input interface from working properly, and a simple reboot solves 90% of these problems.

Enter numbers through T9 and swipes

There's a faster way of typing numbers that not everyone knows about, and on the Gboard keyboard, numbers are sewn into letters, and if you need to dial quickly without switching to the digital layout, you can use a long press or swipe.

Click on the letter that shows the number (e.g. 2 on the letter ABV) and hold your finger. A pop-up menu with a number will appear. However, there is a method faster: just swipe your finger from the letter to the left or right (depending on the swipe settings), and the number will be inserted automatically.