What is Activities in the Xiaomi phone: a full analysis

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often encounter the mysterious term “Activities” (or “Activities”), which pops up in various parts of the system. This word can be seen in the “Special Features” menu, in the list of running processes or even in notifications from system components. For the average user not immersed in the technical details of the Android operating system, this concept can seem superfluous or even suspicious.

In fact, Activities is a fundamental building block of the interface of any Android-based program. Unlike desktop operating systems, where an application is often one big window, in a mobile environment, each individual task within an application is a separate activity. When you open a chat in a messenger, then go to settings, and then take a photo, you consistently run three different activities of the same application. Understanding this mechanism is critical to properly optimize the device.

In Xiaomi’s MIUI or HyperOS ecosystem, activity management is different: it is strictly monitors which windows are open, how much memory they consume and how they interact with each other. In this article, we will discuss in detail what lies behind this term, how to distinguish system processes from malicious ones, and whether it is worth interfering with this mechanism at all.

Technical Essence of Activities in Android Architecture

From a developer perspective, Activity is a component that provides a screen that the user can interact with. It's not just a window, but a life cycle. Every activity has its own states: create, launch, stop, destroy or resume. On a Xiaomi phone, Window Manager, which is part of the system's core, manages these states.

It's important to understand that one application can consist of dozens of activities, for example, in the Gallery app, viewing an album list is one activity, viewing a particular photo is another, and the image editor is a third. All these activities can exist in memory at the same time, even if you see only one of them on the screen, this allows you to instantly switch between tasks, but also puts a strain on the device's RAM.

The Android system on Xiaomi smartphones uses an Activity Stack to store the activity that is running. The last open activity is at the top of the stack and is visible to the user. Previous activity is stored in a frozen or stopped state. If the system lacks resources, it begins to destroy activity from the bottom of the stack, making room for new tasks.

There is also the concept of "background activity"; these are processes that are running but not displayed on the screen. In the MIUI shell, they are often labeled as "cached" and are managed automatically, but the user can intervene in this process through special developer menus or third-party utilities.

Where to find a list of running activities on MIUI and HyperOS

To see what activities are currently running on your Xiaomi, it is not enough to just open the Task Manager. The standard interface only shows the applications, but hides the internal components. To access the full list, you need to activate the developer menu. This is a safe procedure that does not violate the warranty, but requires care.

First, you need to turn on the developer mode. → About the phone and find the line "Version" MIUI» (or "Version" OS»). Press it quickly. 7-10 Once in a row, until the message "You became a developer" appears, and then a new section "More" will appear in the main settings menu» → «For developers».

Inside the developer menu, we're interested in the section related to memory usage or running services, and the path may vary slightly depending on the firmware version:

• 🔍 Go to Settings. → Additionally. → For developers.
• 📱 Find the item “Running Services” or “Memory Use».
• 📊 Here you can see a list of all active processes and the number of activities running for each application.

There is also a deeper way to view the test menu, so on your phone, open the Phone app and type ##4636##. From the menu that opens, select Usage statistics, and you can see a detailed history of how all activities were launched over a period of time.

⚠️ Attention: The Developer menu contains critical system settings. Don't change settings you don't know, especially those related to animation, background limits, or debugging. USB. This could lead to an unstable performance of Xiaomi.

If you need to see a list of all the activities registered in the system (including those that are not running right now), you can use the command through ADB, but for most users, built-in monitoring tools are enough.

Differences between system and user activities

In the list of running processes, you will see a lot of strange names, such as com.android.systemui, com.miui.home or com.google.android.gms. It is important to be able to distinguish the system activities necessary for Xiaomi to work from the activities of user applications. System processes provide basic functionality: lock screen, status bar, and telephony.

User activity is something you run yourself: social networks, games, browsers. However, many applications are able to run their background activities without the user's knowledge. For example, the messenger can keep the process of listening to new messages active, and the navigator - the process of tracking geolocation. In MIUI, such processes are often labeled as "autostart".

Here is a table that helps you categorize the main types of processes you may encounter:

Special attention should be paid to activities with the prefix com.xiaomi or com.miui. These are native components of the shell, and their forced stop through ADB or third-party “task killers” can cause the phone to go into a cyclic restart (bootloop) or stop working touch screen.

⚠️ Warning: If you see an activity with a name that is not clear and consumes a lot of resources, don’t be too quick to delete it. First check its name in the search engine. Often, complex names hide important drivers or update services Xiaomi.

Autostart and Background Process Management

One of the major problems with overactivity is battery drain and slowdown interfaces. The MIUI and HyperOS shells have powerful built-in tools to monitor what goes on under the hood. Auto-run control allows apps to be prevented from creating their activity immediately after the phone is turned on.

To set up, go to the Security app (green lightning icon). Here, select Permissions → Auto Start. You will see a list of apps that have the right to run their services themselves. It is recommended to leave autorun only for messengers (to receive notifications) and alarms on. For games and video players, this feature is better to turn off.

Xiaomi also has an app freeze mechanism, where if an app is frozen, its activity is completely deleted from memory and cannot start until you open it, which is more effective than simply closing the app in the manager.

Algorithm of correct setting of background activity:

• 🛑 Open the Settings. → Annexes → All applications.
• 🔋 Select the desired application and go to “Energy saving».
• 🧊 Select Freeze or Background Activity Restriction mode».
• ✅ Repeat for all rarely used programs.

Also worth mentioning is the memory extension feature, which is that when physical RAM is lacking, the system starts to squelch background activity onto the internal drive, which can cause it to restart when it returns to the application rather than being retrieved from memory.

Use Activity Launcher for Advanced Users

For those who don’t have the standard Xiaomi tools, there’s a great third-party app called Activity Launcher, available on Google Play, which lets you see all the activity you’ve logged into the system, including hidden settings menus, engineering tests, and diagnostic utilities that are not normally available through a regular interface.

This tool can, for example, run a hidden speaker test, open a battery usage menu for a particular component, or activate hidden Bluetooth functions. However, using such software requires caution. Running some system activities without the appropriate context can lead to a “Process isn’t responding” error.

How to work with Activity Launcher on Xiaomi:

1. Install the application from the official store.
2. Give the necessary permissions to access the use (Usage Access).
3. Wait for all packets to be scanned (this can take a minute).
4. Use search to find the right component (e.g., type “battery”).

Power users often use this tool to create desktop shortcuts for specific features, such as a separate icon for Network Reset or Sensor Test, which speeds up access to diagnostics.

Frequent problems and methods of their solution

Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the Xiaomi phone starts to slow down, warm up or quickly discharge due to “hang” activity, this is a state where the process cannot complete its cycle and continues to consume the CPU resources, often after updating the applications or the firmware itself.

The first step is to clear the cache of the problem app, and if that doesn't work, you can try resetting the settings of the app itself, and in extreme cases, if a system process (such as System UI) is hanging, you may need to reset the settings of the entire phone or flash it.

Typical symptoms of activity problems:

• 📉 Unintentionally closing applications immediately after opening.
• 🔥 Heating the case in the area of the camera or processor in idle mode.
• ⚡ Sharp jumps in battery consumption in the statistics chart.
• 🔄 Infinite screen blinking or interface reboot.

For diagnosis, you can use a built-in logger or connect the phone to your computer and remove the logcat, but for the average user, the most effective method is the “clean” installation of updates and auto-start control.

⚠️ Warning: If the phone is constantly restarting due to a system activity error (Bootloop), a normal shutdown will not help. You will need to go into Recovery mode (clamping down the volume and power button) and perform a data reset (Wipe Data!

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

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Activities are not viruses, but a normal part of Android’s work, and should only be interfered with when there are obvious performance or battery problems.

In conclusion, the Activities in Xiaomi phone is a mechanism that ensures multitasking and responsive interface, understanding how they work allows you to more effectively manage the resources of the smartphone, extending its battery life and keeping the system at a high level.