Personalizing a smartphone’s interface is not just a matter of aesthetics, but also a way to improve the efficiency of the device. Owners Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco often face the need to bring a specific photo or widget with an image to the home screen for quick access. The standard shell MIUI and the new HyperOS offer flexible tools for this, but their functionality is scattered on different menus.
In this article, we will take a look at all the methods available to fix a static picture, slideshow or interactive widget right on your desktop, and you will learn to bypass the limitations of the system and use the hidden possibilities of the gallery to create a unique design.
Whether you want to see a photo of your family when you unlock it or create a collage of important documents for a quick view, the instructions below will help you solve this problem in a few minutes without installing third-party software.
Basic methods of installation of static wallpaper
The most obvious way to bring an image to your desktop is to set it as a background screensaver. However, many users are limited to the standard theme gallery, not knowing about the advanced customization options. To set your photo, open the Gallery app, select the image you want, and click on the three dots in the upper right corner.
In the menu that opens, select Set as Wallpaper. The system will offer several options for placement: on the lock screen, on the desktop or on both screens at the same time. For users who appreciate minimalism, it is important to note that MIUI automatically applies the parallax effect, slightly shifting the image when tilting the phone.
If you want the image to be static and not move, you need to turn off the zoom effect. Go to Settings → Wallpaper → select the image → click on the settings icon (cog or three dots) and remove the tick from the item Scaling or Parallax Effect.
⚠️ Note: When you install highly detailed photos as desktop wallpaper, app icons may become less readable.Use background blur feature or choose images with a uniform color in the center of the screen.
For more advanced customization, use the built-in Themes app. In Profile → Wallpaper, you can download an image from the device’s memory and apply filters to it that are not available in the standard gallery, which allows you to adapt a bright photo to the style of the system, making it more muted and pleasant for the eyes.
Using widgets to display photos
A more functional way to transfer images is to use widgets. Unlike static wallpaper, widgets allow you to interact with content or display slideshows. There are several types of widgets available in Xiaomi shells for working with media.
To add a widget, make a long tap (tap and hold) on an empty section of the desktop. In the bottom menu, select Widgets. Scroll the list to the Gallery or Photos section. Here you will find a classic widget that shows one random photo from the albums, and a Photo Film widget that scrolls through the images.
After you select the type of widget, drag it to your desktop. When you first start, the system will ask you to select the source of the images. You can specify a specific album, such as Favorites or Screenshots, which is especially useful for creating dashboards where the photo acts as a visual anchor.
Some widgets allow you to resize your grid. Stretching the widget to 2x2 or 4x2 so that the photo is displayed in higher resolution. New versions of HyperOS have support for widgets with a transparent background, allowing you to beautifully fit the photo into the desktop design, hiding it behind application icons.
- 📸 Classic widget: displays one photo, updated manually or on schedule.
- 🎞️ Slideshow: automatically flips through images from the selected album at predetermined time intervals.
- 🖼️ Collage: shows several thumbnails at the same time, useful for calendar widgets with photos.
Creating shortcuts for specific images
If your goal is to quickly access a specific file, rather than just display it, it’s best to create a direct shortcut. With standard Android tools, this is difficult to do, but there are proven methods in the Xiaomi ecosystem.
The first way involves using the app shortcut. Open Settings → Additional → Application shortcuts. Find Gallery or Explorer in the list. Unfortunately, you can't choose a specific photo, only an application. So we use a different method by creating folders or using third-party launchers if the standard methods don't meet the need.
But there is a hack through the creation of a note. Open the Notes app, create a new entry, paste the image you want to see. Save the note. Now on your desktop, create a Notes widget and select the entry you create, so you get an icon that immediately opens the image you want to see.
☑️ Checking before setting a label
This method is often overlooked as complex, but it ensures that the photo is always on hand, even if the original in the gallery is lost among thousands of other shots, QR-codes.
Setting up a slideshow on the desktop
Dynamic desktop content requires the right source settings. If you want images to change automatically, you need to properly configure the film widget. Go to the widget settings (usually long pressing the widget → gear).
Specify the refresh rate in the settings. The optimal value is 15 minutes or 1 hour. More frequent change of frames can lead to increased battery consumption, especially on the basis of the battery. AMOLED-It is also worth checking whether the Wi-Fi option is enabled for updating only if the widget loads photos from the cloud.
⚠️ Note: Using widgets with frequent content updates (slideshows every 10 seconds) can lead to accelerated battery discharge and device heating in standby mode.
To create a live wallpaper effect, you can use special applications from Google Play that integrate into the system like live wallpaper, but use your personal photos. However, native Xiaomi widgets are more stable and less loading RAM.
If you use a calendar widget with photo support, make sure that the calendar settings allow access to media files. Without the appropriate permissions in the App → Permissions section, the widget will display a standard stub instead of your photo.
Working with widgets in the new shell HyperOS
With the HyperOS transition, the widget interface has changed dramatically, with different sizes and styles of widgets that can be combined, and you can now move the image to the desktop by creating a whole data block.
The new system has improved integration with Mi Cloud services, and if you have enabled gallery sync, widgets can pull photos straight from the cloud, freeing up space on the internal drive, especially for devices with 64GB or 128GB of storage.
The secret of large widgets in HyperOS
Also worth mentioning is the Always On Screen (AOD) feature. Although it's not exactly a desktop, the image on AOD is created on a similar principle. Wallpaper and personalization settings → You can always choose the Photo Album format when the screen is turned off, then the phone will show your photos, creating a digital photo frame effect.
For customization enthusiasts, HyperOS has a feature to change the shape of the widget icons. You can make a photo widget round, square with rounded corners or completely free form, which allows you to fit the image perfectly into the overall design concept.
Solution and optimization
Sometimes users find that widgets stop updating or display old images, often due to MIUI's aggressive energy-saving policies, and to fix this, the system must be banned from "killing" the gallery process.
Go to Settings → Applications → All Apps → find the Gallery (or MIUI Framework Services). Select Activity Control and set No Limits. This ensures that the widgets work correctly in the background.
| Problem. | Possible cause | Decision-making |
|---|---|---|
| Widget black or empty | No access to files. | Give permission in the application settings |
| Photo stretched or cropped | Wrong aspect ratio | Disable scaling or cropping photos |
| Slideshow doesn't flip | Saving energy | Remove the restriction of background activity |
| Poor picture quality | System compression | Use the High-Resolution Original |
Another common problem is desynchronizing widgets after the system update, in which case a simple reset of the widget helps: remove it from the desktop, restart the smartphone and add the widget again. This clears the display cache.
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Expert advice: For the best display quality, use images with a resolution equal to or greater than your smartphone screen resolution (e.g. 2400×1080 for FHD+ displays).