Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face the desire to personalize the appearance of their device. The screen area is the first thing a user sees when activating the display, and standard sizes of interface elements may not be suitable for everyone. Some prefer large, noticeable icons for quick access, and someone needs to place on the desktop maximum number of widgets and applications. Fortunately, the MIUI shell and its modern version of HyperOS provide quite flexible tools for customizing visual style.
Changing the size of icons is not just a matter of aesthetics, but also ergonomics. The right scale helps you find the right programs faster and makes interaction with your gadget more comfortable, especially for people with visual disabilities. In this article, we will discuss in detail all the available methods, from built-in themes to the use of advanced launchers, you will learn how to bypass the standard limitations of the system and make the interface truly your own.
Before we make any radical changes, some methods require additional software, while others are available out of the box. It is important to understand the difference between resizing the graphics files themselves and scaling the desktop grid. In the MIUI/HyperOS shell, you can only change the grid and font, and real icon resizing requires the use of one or another third-party launcher. Let's look at each method in detail.
Using the Themes app to scale up
The safest and most official way to change the visual experience of icons is to use the built-in Theme app. Xiaomi catalog features thousands of designs, many of which have unique sizes of graphic elements. Some themes make icons more compact to accommodate more information, others, on the contrary, increase them for style.
To start, open the Themes app on your smartphone. Search for "Small icons" or "Large icons," or simply browse the popular categories. When choosing a theme, look at the screenshots in the description: it often shows how the icon proportions have changed. After downloading the theme, take your time to apply it fully.
In the theme preview menu, find the Customize button (or gear icon) where the system will tell you which components you want to activate. You can leave your wallpaper and fonts using only icons from the selected package, which allows you to mix styles and reach the desired size without completely changing the visual style of the system.
⚠️ Note: Some third-party themes may contain promotional modules or may not display correctly on screens with high refresh rates.
If a standard directory doesn’t work, you can use third-party sources of.mtz themes. These files often contain deeper interface modifications. However, installing unverified themes can cause the launcher to run unstable, so always back up before experimenting.
Configuring the desktop grid in system parameters
While this method doesn't change the physical pixel size of the icon itself, it has a profound effect on how it's perceived on the screen. Changing the number of rows and columns is a basic tool of ergonomics. The fewer cells you choose, the larger the interface elements will appear, as they will take up more space in each grid cell.
To set up, go to your device's Settings menu. Find the Desktop section (some firmware versions may call it Home). Here you're interested in Grid settings or Grid Size. The system will offer several options, such as 4x6, 5x6 or 6x9. Choosing the 4x5 option will make the icons visually larger than the 6x9 option.
In addition to the grid, the menu also often features a Scale option, and by moving the slider, you can increase or decrease the size of all the items on your desktop, including captions and widgets, which is especially true for visually impaired users who don't have a standard size.
☑️ Desktop setting
Remember, changing the grid can shift the location of your widgets. After you apply the settings, check if the widgets of weather, watches and news are displayed correctly. If a widget has “climbed” out of bounds or become too small, its configuration will have to be reconfigured manually.
Installation of third-party launchers for full control
If you don't like the built-in features, the best solution is to install a third-party launcher, which is a replacement desktop application that gives you full access to display options. Popular options like Nova Launcher, Microsoft Launcher or Smart Launcher allow you to resize icons to pixel accuracy.
Once you have installed the launcher from Google Play and assigned it to the primary, go to its settings. Find the Desktop or Icons section. There you will find the icon size sliders and the grid size. You can make the icons giant or microscopic, ignoring the constraints imposed by Xiaomi.
However, current versions of Android and MIUI can have animation conflicts. Control gestures (swipes to open app menus or search) may not work properly. To fix this, you often need to include special permissions in the developer menu or in the special features settings.
| Launcher | Flexibility of setting | Impact on the battery | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Launcher | Maximum | Low. | Medium |
| Microsoft Launcher | Tall. | Average. | Low. |
| Smart Launcher 6 | Automatic. | Low. | Low. |
| Standard MIUI | Limited. | Optimal. | Low. |
Using third-party software is always a balance between functionality and stability. Heavy launchers with lots of animations can consume more RAM, which on budget models Redmi or POCO can lead to more frequent unloading of background applications.
How do you get back the standard launcher?
Scaling through the Developer Menu
For advanced users who don't want to put in unnecessary apps, there's a hidden method through the engineering menu, where you can change the global interface scale (DPI or Smallest Width), and this will affect not only the icons, but all the elements of the system: the keyboard, the settings menu and the browser.
To activate this mode, go to Settings → About Phone. Find the MIUI Version (or OS Version) bar and quickly click on it 7-10 times until the notification “You became a developer” appears.
Inside the menu, find Smallest Width. Remember the original value (usually around 360-392 dp) to be able to bring it back. Reducing that number will make all the items, including icons, larger. Increasing the number will, on the contrary, zoom in, making the icons smaller, but putting more content on the screen.
⚠️ Attention: Be very careful with this setting! If you set a value that is too small or too large, the interface may become unreadable and you may not be able to return to the settings. 10-15 unit.
This is the most aggressive way to resize, and it's useful if you need to tailor the interface to specific tasks, like a big screen display, or for people with very poor eyesight who lack standard accessibility settings.
Size setting of widgets and their compatibility
When you change the size of your icons, you can't forget widgets. In the Xiaomi ecosystem, widgets are often tied to your desktop grid. If you've shrunk icons through the theme but left a large grid, widgets can look disproportionately large or, conversely, too small.
To control widgets, pinch the empty space on your desktop and select Widgets. When dragging a widget onto the screen, you can resize it by pulling the edges (usually a blue bezel with sliders). However, not all widgets support arbitrary resizing. Mi system widgets often have fixed proportions.
If you use a third-party launcher, the compatibility of widgets may be compromised. Some widgets from Google may appear with black backgrounds or incorrect fonts. In such cases, it is recommended to look for alternative widgets in the same launcher or use widget aggregators that adapt them to any style.
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Tip: To create the perfect minimalist desktop, use the Play Market’s Blank Widget widget, which allows you to create empty cells in the grid, helping you beautifully arrange large icons and widgets.
Frequent problems and ways to solve them
In the process of customization, users often encounter artifacts, such as when the theme is changed, icons may become blurred or have a white square background instead of a transparent one, which is solved by clearing the theme and system UI app cache through the application management menu.
Another problem is desynchronization after the system update. Major Android updates or the transition from MIUI 14 to HyperOS can reset all launcher settings and themes to default. To avoid wasting time, use the launcher backup (if any) or take screenshots of the current configuration.
If the icons are gone or your desktop is frozen, try restarting the launcher process. Go to Settings → Applications → All applications, find the System Launcher (or your launcher’s name) and click Stop. The screen will blink and the desktop will reboot with the settings applied.