Owners of Xiaomi smartphones with the MIUI shell and the new HyperOS often notice the appearance of small green or orange dots in the upper right corner of the screen. These indicators light up when you launch applications using a camera or microphone and signal that video or sound is being recorded. Although this feature is designed to protect user privacy, many find it annoying, especially when the icon is constantly burning or interferes with view during games.
It is important to understand that these indicators are part of the security system Android 12 and newer versions introduced by Google. Completely remove them by system methods without getting a Root-right and not interfering with system files, it is impossible. However, there are ways to minimize their impact, hide them from view or disable access notifications in the curtain of status. In this article, we will discuss all the available options for owners of Redmi and Poco devices.
Before we get to the settings, we should ask ourselves, do you really need to hide these indicators? They serve as an important reminder that right now, an app is listening to you or looking through the lens. If you often forget to turn off the recorder or video call, these dots will help avoid embarrassing situations. However, if the aesthetic of the interface is more important to you, we will consider the technical capabilities of the shell.
The Nature of the Emergence of Privacy Indicators
The appearance of camera icons and microphones is not a whim of Xiaomi engineers, but a strict requirement of Google to manufacturers of Android smartphones. 12, The operating system has to visually notify the user of the sensors, and this is the industry's response to the increasing incidence of malware surveillance, and when you see a green diamond or dot, it means that the system process is very much a bit more complex. privacy_indicator activated.
On Xiaomi devices, implementation of these indicators may vary depending on the firmware version. In older versions of MIUI 12, these could be large icons in the curtain, whereas in MIUI 14 and HyperOS they became minimalist points in the corner of the screen. The system tracks the calls to hardware modules at the kernel level, so a normal application closure does not always instantly turn off the indicator if the process is getting stuck in the background.
⚠️ Warning: Attempting to delete system files responsible for indicators through a file manager with Root rights can lead to a cyclic smartphone restart (bootloop.
Many users confuse the work indicators with the permission notifications: the first one shows the current status (“right now recording”), the second one informs that the application has requested access in the past, you can only remove the notifications in the curtain, but not the activity indicators themselves, if we are talking about standard settings.
Notification settings in MIUI status bar
While it’s hard to turn off the green dot in the corner of the screen, you can remove the advanced camera and microphone notifications that appear in the curtain or on the lock screen. You need to go to the security settings menu. The path may vary slightly, but the logic remains the same for all Xiaomi devices.
You have to open the Security app, which is the system control center, and then you have to look up the Privacy section, and that's where all the access control tools are, and in some versions of the firmware, this might be called Privacy Protection.
- 📱 Go to Settings. → Protection of confidentiality → Special permits.
- 🔍 Find the "Camera" and "Microphone" items in the permission list.
- ⚙️ Turn off the “Show icon in status bar” option (if available in your version) MIUI).
- 🔒 Check the “Permissions Manager” section for detailed configuration of each application.
It is worth noting that in the latest updates to HyperOS, Xiaomi hid the possibility of completely disabling visual indicators, following Google's policy: If you do not see the "Show icon" switch, then in your version of the firmware it is blocked by the manufacturer for security, in which case only workarounds remain, which will be discussed below.
☑️ Checking security settings
Using the "Game" mode to hide icons
One of the most effective legal ways to remove distracting icons while using apps is Game Turbo, which is designed to create an immersive experience, so it automatically hides notifications, status icons and system indicators to keep the player out of the way.
To take advantage of this method, add the desired application (such as a messenger or browser) to the list of games. Even if it is not a game, Game Turbo will treat it as a gaming application, applying the rules of concealment of the interface. When you run through the center of games, the camera icons and microphone will no longer appear on top of the content.
However, this method has a significant disadvantage: aggressive Game Turbo optimization can limit the background activity of the application, which will lead to delays in receiving messages or interruption of a video call when switching to another window, a compromise between a clean screen and the stability of the service.
How to add an app to Game Turbo?
Hiding indicators through developer settings
For advanced users who aren't afraid to experiment with system settings, there's a Developer Menu. You can find settings that affect the debugging and display of overlays. Although there's no direct Hide Camera Indicator button, you can change the behavior of the system when you request permissions.
To get into this menu, you need to click on the build number in the About section several times. Once activated, an expanded setup list will open. We're interested in the app and notification section. Some enthusiasts use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) commands to change the values of system variables.
For example, you can try to enter a command via a computer connected via USB:
adb shell settings put global privacy_indicator_enabled 0This command can run on some stock versions of Android, but on MIUI and HyperOS shells it is often ignored or requires a system signature. If the command doesn't work, don't try to type other random commands from the Internet without understanding their function.
| Method | Efficiency | Risks. | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIUI settings | Low (curtain only) | No. | Low. |
| Game Turbo | High (inside the annex) | Medium (job bugs) | Low. |
| ADB team | Medium (depending on version) | High (entry errors) | Tall. |
| Root + Modules | Complete. | Critical (brick) | Very high. |
Control of application access to camera and microphone
Instead of fighting indicators, it's more effective to control which apps are authorized to activate them. Often the icon burns because you forgot to close a video call in the background or some app abuses permissions. Xiaomi's permissions manager allows you to customize access in detail.
Go to Settings → Privacy Protection → Permissions Manager. Here you will see a list of all the applications that have access to the camera and microphone. You can choose the "Ask" or "Disable" option for suspicious programs. Also useful is the "Virtual Camera" feature, which broadcasts an empty signal instead of a real image.
- 🚫 Select "Always Disallow" for applications that don't need sound (calculator, files).
- ⏱ Use the "Only during use" option to close access immediately after the folding.
- 🛡 Activate Virtual Camera for test applications so they don’t get a real video stream.
Pay special attention to Always-enabled apps, which means they can activate the microphone even in the phone's sleep mode, which not only causes the icon to appear, but also quickly lands the battery. Regularly checking this list is the best digital hygiene practice.
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Use the Virtual Camera feature for older applications that require access to the camera to work but don’t actually use it, which will trick the application and remove the real query to.
Advanced Methods: ADB and System Change
For those who are willing to go further, there is a method of using ADB (Android Debug Bridge) without obtaining Root permissions, which allows you to remove or freeze the system components responsible for displaying indicators, but this requires connecting to a PC and executing commands in the terminal.
You need to find the exact name of the packet that's responsible for the indicators. MIUI It can be called com.miui.privacy or system process. system_ui. The removal command looks like an adb shell pm uninstall. --user 0 packet.
⚠️ Note: Removal of system components through ADB If you update the firmware, all changes will be reset, but in between, the system may be unstable!
A more secure but challenging option is to install custom Magisk modules (requires unlocking the bootloader and Root). There are modules like No Privacy Indicators that patch the system framework. This is the only way to guarantee that the dots are permanently removed, but it is unwarranted and can cause problems with banking applications.
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The only way to completely and permanently remove the system-level indicators is to modify the system files (Root/Magisk), This is a high risk for the stability of the smartphone.