Modern smartphones have become indispensable tools, but often we don’t notice how many hours we spend in a bright display. Owners of Xiaomi devices running on the shell of MIUI or the new HyperOS have built-in powerful tools for self-control. You can find out how much time you spent on your phone without installing third-party programs using the system functions of Digital Well-Being.
Not only does it show you dry statistics, it also allows you to analyze in detail which apps are eating up your day. It starts collecting data about your activity as soon as you first activate your device or reset, so the story can already be accessed. Understanding this data is the first step to bringing order to your digital life and increasing productivity.
In this article, we'll look at all the ways we can get statistics, from standard menus to hidden features, and learn not only to look at numbers, but also to manage them by setting reasonable limits, especially for those who want to reduce their reliance on social media or control their children's screen time.
Standard path through system settings
The easiest and most reliable way to get a general picture of smartphone usage is to consult the standard settings menu. Xiaomi’s interface may vary slightly depending on the Android version and firmware, but the logic remains the same. You need to open the Settings app and find the section responsible for the health of the digital space.
Most current versions of MIUI call it Digital Well-being, and you'll see a pie chart inside that shows the total time you're using for the day, and if you click on the chart itself or the Show All Data button, you'll go to a detailed report.
Here, the information is presented in a convenient visual format. You can switch between days of the week to track the dynamics: on weekends, it often increases, and on working days it has peaks at lunchtime. The system also shows how many times you unlocked the device, which is a great indicator of the frequency of distractions.
⚠️ Note: If you just updated your firmware or dropped your phone, the statistics from the previous days may not be available, as the data is stored locally on your device and is not synchronized with your Mi Account.
You can use settings to search for this feature quickly, and just type in the search box the phrase "time" or "well-being," and the system will suggest the desired section, which saves time, especially if the menu items have been renamed in the new version of the shell.
💡
Use the Digital Well-Being widget on your desktop to see screen usage statistics without going into the deep settings menus each time.
Analysis of activity by specific application
Total time on a phone is just the tip of the iceberg, and it’s much more important to understand how that time is distributed between different programs. In the statistics section, Xiaomi provides a detailed list of all the apps that are running, sorted by time of use.
Clicking on a particular app, like YouTube or Instagram, you'll see a detailed timeline of how it's used throughout the day, which reveals patterns of behavior: maybe you're spending more time on instant messengers than you thought, or social media is taking hours of productive work.
- 📱 Social media: Often takes up to 60% of all screen time, forming the habit of constantly scrolling tape.
- 🎮 Games: Can stealthily eat up for hours in the evening, especially if the game has a addictive plot or online mode.
- 🎬 Streaming services: Watching high-resolution video not only wastes time, but also significantly consumes battery power.
Importantly, the system only takes into account the time when the screen was active and the app was in the foreground. background activity such as listening to music or navigating may be displayed separately or not accounted for in total screen usage time, which is an important nuance for objective assessment.
By analyzing this list, you can decide to remove time-absorbing apps or limit their performance. Xiaomi allows you to set time limits for each application individually, which we will discuss in the following sections.
Use of the function "Sleep mode" and "Rest"
Xiaomi’s digital well-being features are closely related to sleep, and you can activate a sleep or rest profile in the settings, which automatically changes the behavior of your smartphone at a given hour, not only to look less at your phone at night, but also to see nighttime usage statistics better.
When the mode is activated, the screen is switched to black and white (shades of gray), which makes using the gadget less attractive to the brain. In addition, notifications from most applications stop coming so as not to wake you up and provoke you to check the phone.
In the statistics, you can see how effectively this mode works. If you see that even in black and white hours, the usage time remains high, it's a signal of a serious addiction to work with. The system can also automatically turn on Do Not Disturb mode, blocking calls from all but selected contacts.
| Function | Screen impact | Notifications | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep regimen | Black and white filter | Blocked. | Improving the quality of rest |
| Focusing | No change. | Only important. | Increased productivity |
| Night mode. | Reduction of blue | Active. | Eye protection. |
The schedule for these modes is set up in the same Digital Well-Being menu, and you can set different profiles for weekdays and weekends, making time control more flexible and adaptable to your rhythm of life.
Why is the screen turning black and white?
Setting time limits and restrictions
Once you know how much time you spend on your phone, it makes sense to set limits. Xiaomi lets you set a daily limit for each app. When you run out of time, the app icon will turn grey and you can only run it with additional confirmation.
To set the limit, go to the usage statistics, select the desired application and click on the hourglass icon or the "Limit of Use" option. You can choose preset options (for example, 30 minutes) or set the exact time manually.
- ⏳ Flexibility: Limits can be easily changed or disabled at any time if restrictions become too tight.
- 🔔 Reminders: The system can alert you 5 or 10 minutes before the limit expires, giving you time to complete the current action.
- 👶 Parental controls: Similar limits can be set remotely on children’s phones through Google Family Link, which is integrated into the system.
It is important to understand that these restrictions only apply at the operating system level, and if you uninstall an application and reinstall it, or use the web version of the service through a browser, the statistics may be reset or not counted correctly.
☑️ Setting effective limits
Hidden opportunities and development teams
For advanced users, Xiaomi provides access to deeper statistics through the developer menu, and you can see not only the time of use, but also the number of process launches, CPU load in the background and other technical information.
To activate this mode, you need to click on the version number several times in the About Phone section. After the message “You became a developer” appears, a new option “For developers” will appear in the main settings menu.
Inside this section, you should look at the Usage Stats section, which displays data in a more raw form that can be useful for identifying applications that are not visible in the basic statistics but are actively working in the background.
⚠️ Attention: The developer menu contains critical system settings. Changing the settings you are not sure about can lead to unstable work. MIUI data loss.
It is also possible to view statistics via ADB (Android Debug Bridge) from a computer, connecting to the phone via USB. the adb shell dumpsys usagestats command will display a full log of all events related to the use of applications, with an accuracy of a second.
adb shell dumpsys package com.android.settings | grep"Usage"This method is more suitable for enthusiasts and diagnostic specialists, as it requires a computer and basic knowledge of working with the command line.
💡
Using the developer menu gives access to detailed technical statistics, but requires caution, as erroneous settings can disrupt the system.