How to change the type of phone book in Xiaomi: interface settings

Xiaomi smartphone owners often face the need to personalize the interface to make the device more comfortable, especially the “bell ringer” and the list of contacts we use daily, and the standard appearance may not suit users due to the small print, inconvenient sorting or the presence of unnecessary elements.

The interface of the MIUI shell and the new HyperOS offer a lot of customization options, but many of the features are hidden in the depth of the menu. In this article, we will discuss how to change the appearance of the phone book in Xiaomi to make calls more convenient and find the right number takes seconds.

Changing your display settings doesn’t require superuser rights or third-party launchers, and all the tools are already built into the Contacts and Phone system app, and we’ll look at both basic font settings and advanced sorting options.

Basic setting of the display of the contact list

The first thing that catches your eye when you open a phone book is the order of the names and the font size. To change the view of the phone book in Xiaomi, you need to go to the settings of the application itself. Open Contacts, click on three dots or a gear in the corner of the screen and select Settings.

Here you'll find the "Contact Display" section, which is responsible for what kind of entries will be visible in the list, and you can choose to show only the numbers from the list. SIM-Maps, contacts from your phone's memory or synchronized records from your Google account and Mi Cloud. This helps to remove visual noise.

Also available in this section is the option “Combine duplicates” if you have the same person logged in twice (e.g. from WhatsApp and from WhatsApp). SIM-The system can display them as one record or separate them. Enabling a merger makes the list cleaner and clearer.

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Use the duplicate merge feature regularly to avoid confusion when searching for a subscriber in the list.

Remember, the changes are effective immediately. SIM-They'll disappear from the list, but they won't be physically deleted. You can return them at any time, activate the corresponding switch in the display menu again.

Managing font size and interface elements

A common problem for users is that text is too small on the contact list, especially on high-resolution models. To fix this, you don't have to change the whole theme.

Go to Settings → Screen and Brightness → Text Size. By moving the slider, you will rescale the font throughout the system, including the phone book, making names and numbers more readable without losing image quality.

But there's a more subtle setup, and some versions of the shell have a "Large Mode" or "Mode for the Elderly," which not only increases the font, but also changes the tiles, making the call buttons huge, and it changes the way the phone book looks in Xiaomi.

• 📱 Standard Mode: Compact List, Lots of Contacts on Screen.
• 👴 Second space / Lite mode: large icons, simplified menu.
• 🎨 Topics: Completely changing the style of numbers and buttons through the Mi Themes store.

If standard zooming tools are not enough, you can use third-party themes. In the Themes app, type "Large dialer" or "Big contacts" in the search, installing such a theme will change the visual style of dialing and contact list, making the interface elements more massive.

Sorting and ordering of names: Surname or Name?

One of the most important aspects of convenience is the order of sorting; by default, in Chinese firmware or in certain settings of the region, contacts can be sorted by name; for a Russian-speaking user, it is more common to sort by surname or alphabetically by full name.

To change this, open the Contacts app, go to the settings, and find Contact Sort, where you can find options by name, by surname, or by add-on time, and choosing the right one makes navigation through a large number base much faster.

Also, pay attention to the display format. You can customize whether to show first, first or last name. This affects how the phone book in Xiaomi will look in the call list and address book. The changes apply to all contacts at once.

⚠️ Attention: After you change the order of sorting, the index alphabet on the right (A-Y) can change, and if you were looking for a contact with the first letter of your last name, and you were sorting by name, you might not find it.

It's worth noting that some changes require a reboot of the app, so if you've changed the settings, but the list looks old, close the app through the task menu and reopen it, and this will force the display cache to update.

Hiding and filtering unnecessary records

Modern smartphones store thousands of records, including technical numbers for services, courier services and spam. To change the look of a phone book in Xiaomi to make it cleaner, use filters to hide contacts labeled as “Spam” or “Unknown Numbers.”

In the settings of the application “Security” or built-in antivirus Xiaomi has a function “Antispam”. Activated blocking of hidden numbers, you will not only protect yourself from calls, but also remove these records from visibility in the shared contact feed, if the appropriate filtering option is enabled.

You can also create your own groups, like Work, Family, Service, and by going to the Groups tab, you can filter the list by leaving only the right category on the screen, which is especially useful when you need to quickly find a colleague's number without having to scroll through hundreds of personal contacts.

Another method is to delete blank or incorrect posts, often when synchronized with social networks, contacts without numbers are created, and they are better removed or hidden through the display settings by selecting “Show only contacts with phone numbers”.

Comparison of standard interface and design themes

Users often wonder if the standard interface should be changed to a third-party theme: the standard MIUI shell is optimized for performance, but can seem boring. The themes offer unique design, but sometimes contain advertising or work slower.

Below is a table comparing the capabilities of the standard interface and custom themes in the context of a phone book:

If you want stability and functionality, you better set up a standard look, and if visual style is important and you're willing to put up with small issues, the theme store is a great solution, and you can download themes from the Themes app, which is preinstalled on all smartphones of the brand.

Solving problems with synchronization and display

Sometimes changing your settings doesn’t work because of synchronization errors. If you changed the look of your phone book in Xiaomi but your contacts are missing or are not displayed correctly, check your account status. Go to Settings → Accounts and Sync.

Make sure the slider next to Contacts is active. If the sync is suspended, try turning it off and on again, or click Sync manually, which will download the current data from a Google or Mi Cloud server, updating the look of the list.

Problems can also arise from an overcrowded app cache. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps → Contacts → Memory and click Clear Cache. This won’t delete your numbers, but will reset temporary files that may have caused display errors.

⚠️ Warning: Do not confuse Clear Cache with Clear All Data (or Reset). The second action will delete all local app settings and may result in the loss of contacts not saved in the cloud.

In difficult cases, when the interface is stuck or displays artifacts, a simple smartphone reboot helps, which is a standard procedure for Android devices that restarts all system processes responsible for UI.

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Regular cleaning of the cache and checking the synchronization status is the key to the correct display of contacts in the phone book.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Hopefully, these tips have helped you customize your smartphone to suit you. A properly configured phone book is not only beautiful, but also saves you time in your daily use of the gadget.