Customizing the bottom buttons on Xiaomi: touch, physical and gestures

The bottom navigation bar on Xiaomi smartphones is one of the most commonly used interface elements, but not all users know that it can be flexibly customized to their needs.Whether you prefer the classic three buttons (Back, Home, Recent), gestures or want to completely remove the panel for immersive viewing of content – MIUI has tools for this. The problem is that the options are scattered across different menus, and their names change depending on the firmware version and device model.

In this article, we’ll look at all possible scenarios, from basic button repositioning to hidden features like double-touching to lock or adjust full-space gestures (which work even on budget Redmi and POCO), and focus on the nuances for physical button devices (such as the Xiaomi Mi 9T or Redmi Note 8 Pro), where the configuration algorithm is different, and you’ll learn how to return standard control if after experiments the smartphone began to behave incorrectly.

Types of lower buttons on Xiaomi: what are and where are they

Before you start setting up, it’s important to determine what type of navigation is installed on your device, which determines the functionality available and the path in the settings menu. On Xiaomi smartphones, there are three main options:

• 📱 Three classic buttons ("Back", "Home", "Recent") are the standard for older versions MIUI (10th and some models with physical buttons.
• 👆 Gestures MIUI — swipes from the bottom edge of the screen (similar to gestures in pure Android, but with unique features like “quick camera start»).
• 🖥️ Full-space gestures – a hidden navigation bar that only appears when swiping (as close as possible to an iPhone-like control).

To find out your current scheme, just look at the bottom of the screen:

• If you see three icons (arrow, circle, square) – you have classic buttons.
• If the panel is not, but swipe up returns to the main screen - these are MIUI gestures.
• If the panel appears only when swipeing from the bottom, these are full-spatial gestures.

On some models (for example, Xiaomi Mi 11 or POCO F4) All three options are available, and on budget devices like Redmi. 10A It can only be a classic scheme, and it's also worth considering that after the update, MIUI The settings can be reset – we will talk about this in the section on recovery.

How to change the location and style of the lower buttons

If you want to simply change the order of the buttons (e.g., place “Back” on the right, like in iOS), or change their appearance, you can do it in a few steps. Importantly, on devices with physical buttons (e.g. Xiaomi Mi A2) this method will not work – there the setting is done through ADB (more on this below).

Instructions for MIUI 14/15 (Android 13/14):

1. Open the Settings → Display.
2. Select Full-Space Display (on some firmware, the item is called Navigation Panel).
3. Slip by Navigation Bar Type and select Buttons.
4. In the menu you will see three different options: 🔄 Standard ("Back" left, "Home" in the center). 🔀 Back ("Back" on the right, like on the iPhone). 🎨 Customized (you can drag buttons manually).

Style of the navigation panel

On devices with MIUI 12 and below, the path may be different: Settings → System → Gestures → Navigation buttons. If you don’t have Customized, then your model doesn’t support manual drag and drop — you’ll have to choose from standard schemas.

Check the version of MIUI (Settings → About the phone)

Take a screenshot of the current panel (in case of rollback)

Connect charging (setup may require rebooting)

Close all applications (to make changes apply immediately)-->

Customizing gestures instead of buttons: step-by-step instructions

Xiaomi gestures are better than many other Android smartphones: there are unique features like quick Google Assistant launch or double-touch lock. To enable gestures, follow these steps:

For MIUI 14/15:

1. Go to Settings → Display → Full-Space Display.
2. Select the Navigation Panel Type → MIUI Gestures.
3. Turn on the All-Space Gestures switch (recommended for maximum immersive screen).
4. Click on Additional Gesture Settings and Configure: 🔙 Swipe from the edge to return (analogue of the button "Back»). 🏠 Swipe up for the main screen (latency is controlled by the slider). 📱 Swipe up and hold for recent apps. 🔄 Quick switching between applications (swipe to the right on the bottom edge).

For MIUI 12/13, the path is different: Settings → System → Gestures → System Navigation. MIUI Gestures and Android Gestures are also available here (the latter are less customizable, but more familiar to users of other brands).

Note: on some devices (for example, POCO X3 Pro) after the gestures are turned on, the charging indicator in the status bar may disappear. This is not a bug, but a feature of full-space mode - you can return the indicator through Settings → Battery → Charging Level Display.

Hidden functions of the lower buttons: what can be done besides standard settings

Few people know, but the bottom panel on Xiaomi supports several hidden features that can be activated through a developer or special combinations.

The dashboard hiding feature in games is especially useful, as it automatically removes navigation when you launch supported apps (such as PUBG Mobile or Genshin Impact) and returns it after you release it. To add a game to the list, go to Settings → Apps → Permissions → Autoturn and Full-screen mode.

For experimentation lovers: if you want to completely remove the bottom panel (even in gesture mode), you can use the command adb shell settings put global. policy_control immersive.full=*. But be careful: without the navigation bar, you can't go back to the home screen or open recent apps without gestures! To get it back, type in adb shell settings put global settings. policy_control null.

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If after setting up gestures, the swipe to call the notification panel is missing, check the settings settings. → Notifications and status bar → Swipe down for the notification bar.Sometimes it resets after the update MIUI.

Setting up physical buttons on older Xiaomi models

If you have a device with physical buttons (e.g. Xiaomi Mi 8, Redmi Note 7 or other buttons) POCO F1), And then the standard menu settings won't work. There are two ways to do this. ADB-commands or third-party applications such as Button Mapper.

Method 1: Reassign via ADB (requires a computer):

1. Turn on USB Debugging in Settings → About Phone → MIUI version (tap 7 times on version, then go back to Additional settings → For developers).
2. Connect your phone to your PC and execute the command: adb shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "space,back;home;recent,space" Here back, home and recent are the "back," "home" and "recent" buttons respectively. Change their order as you wish.
3. To cancel changes, use: adb shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "default"

Method 2: Button Mapper (no root, but ADB rights required):

1. Install Button Mapper from Google Play.
2. Connect your phone to your PC and give the app permission via the command: adb -d shell pm grant flar2.homebutton flar2.homebutton.permission.BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE
3. In the app, select a physical button (such as “Back”) and reassign it to another action (opening Google Assistant, launching the camera, etc.).

⚠️ Note: Some models (e.g. Xiaomi Mi) A3 With pure Android One, reassigning physical buttons can cause Face Unlock to fail. Before experimenting, check if the button is used in system functions (for example, to unlock the face).

How to return standard buttons if something goes wrong

If after experimenting with settings, the bottom panel disappeared, gestures stopped working or the smartphone began to behave inadequately, do not panic - you can return everything back in several ways.

Method 1: Reset via settings (if the interface is still available):

1. Go to Settings → Display → Full-Space Display.
2. Select the Navigation Bar Type → Buttons.
3. Press Reset (if there is no such button, just select the standard scheme).

Method 2: Reset via ADB (if the screen does not respond to touch):

1. Connect your phone to your PC and execute the command: adb shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "default"
2. If it doesn’t work, try resetting all gesture settings: adb shell settings put secure gesture_navigation_enabled 0

Method 3: Reset via Safe Mode (if the third-party application is at fault):

1. Press the power button and hold the power off until a request to switch to Safe Mode appears.
2. In Safe Mode, remove newly installed apps (especially launchers or button customization utilities).
3. Restart the phone and the settings will return to standard.

If the problem is not solved, try to check the integrity of the system files.

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → System update.
2. Click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Update Checker.
3. If the system offers Recovery, you'll agree. It won't delete your data, but it will reinstall the system components.

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If after all the manipulations, the buttons or gestures still don't work, the cause may be a damaged firmware, in which case only the firmware reflash through Fastboot or Recovery will help.

FAQ: Answers to Frequent Questions