Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face the desire to personalize their device’s interface by making it unique and unlike standard build. One of the easiest and most effective ways to change the look of the system is to replace standard app icons with more aesthetic or thematic ones. Fortunately, the MIUI shell and the new HyperOS have powerful built-in functionality that allows you to conduct deep customization without having to download third-party launchers or obtain root rights.
Many users mistakenly believe that to change the graphics necessarily need to install heavy programs like Nova Launcher or Theme Editor, which can lead to unstable system operation. In fact, the company's built-in tools allow you to change not only the images themselves, but also their shapes, sizes and even font styles, affecting the display of text under the icons. The key advantage of the built-in methods is full compatibility with the update system, since the official themes do not fly out after rebooting or updating the firmware.
In this article, we will take a look at all the legal and safe ways to change the visual style of your smartphone. We will look at working with the standard Themes app, learn how to use the Second Space function to create unique profiles, and discuss the intricacies of font customization that also affect the perception of the interface. You do not need to be a programmer to turn your gadget into a work of digital art using only the regular capabilities of the shell.
Use of the built-in MIUI and HyperOS theme store
The most obvious and functional tool for changing the look and feel is the Themes app, which is not just a wallpaper catalog, but a full-fledged customization platform where graphical elements of the apps are packed into ready-made sets, and to use this method, you don't have to search for files on the Internet, you just need to have a Mi Account account and a network connection.
The process of installing a new graphic takes only a few minutes. Open the app, go to the Themes or Icons section at the bottom menu. You can search for the name of the desired style, for example, "iOS", "Minimal" or "Cyberpunk". After choosing a favorite theme, you do not need to use it fully: you can often download only a pack of icons, leaving your wallpaper and widgets unchanged.
- 🎨 Open the Themes app on the home screen or in the Tools folder».
- 🔍 Go to the icon category or use keyword search.
- ⬇️ Press the Download button (down arrow) next to the selected set.
- ✅ Click Apply to activate the new style immediately.
It is important to note that in some regions (e.g. Russia or Europe), the theme catalog may be limited compared to the Chinese version. If standard search does not yield results, you can try changing the region in your phone settings. Go to Settings → Additional → Region and choose India or Singapore. This action is safe and does not erase your data, but will open up access to thousands of additional design solutions.
⚠️ Warning: When you change region, some system applications may temporarily change language or functionality, but once you return the original settings, everything will fall into place.
Customization of shapes and sizes through the design menu
Even if you don't want to download new themes, it allows you to change the geometry of icons, which is especially useful when standard square or rounded shapes don't suit you. In the shell of MIUI 14 and HyperOS, these settings are put into a separate menu, accessible through long-term pressing on the empty desktop space.
Press and hold your finger on the free area of the screen until the edit menu appears. Select Settings (cogs) in the lower right corner. Here you will find the icon size slider, which allows you to make them larger or smaller, which is useful for people with reduced vision or, conversely, for those who want to see more content on the screen.
The System Icons section is also available on this menu, and you can click on it and see a few shapes: classic, round (like old Android), square, or completely hidden (text only), and these settings are instant and do not require a device to restart. This is a great way to quickly refresh the look of a smartphone in just 10 seconds.
☑️ Checklist for quick setup
Remember, changing the form can affect different applications in different ways. Some third-party programs may ignore the system settings of the form if their developers have rigidly set display parameters, in such cases only installing a full-fledged theme that forcibly changes the graphical shell of a particular application helps.
Changing fonts as a way to influence the interface
Few people think about it, but the typeface that apps sign directly affects the perception of icons. Large, bold or thin typeface changes the balance of the desktop. The Xiaomi theme store has a huge section dedicated exclusively to fonts, many of which are free.
To change the font, open the Topic app and go to the Font tab (usually indicated by the letter "T" or text icon). Here you can find styles that mimic handwriting, technical fonts or simply more readable options. Once you load the font, the system will suggest applying it. This action will affect the entire interface: the settings menu, messages, the browser and, of course, the signatures under the icons.
| Type of font | Impact on the interface | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Classic (Sans) | Standard readability, familiar look | For office work |
| Fat (Bold) | Increases the visual weight of signatures | For people with poor eyesight |
| Handwritten | Makes the interface less rigorous, unique | For personalization |
| Monowidthy | Technical style, like in code. | For developers |
Using non-standard fonts can cause some applications to crop or overlap text if the font is too wide, in which case you can always quickly return to the standard font through the same theme menu by selecting Profile → Fonts → Default.
How do you get it back?
Creating a unique style through the Second Space
Xiaomi’s Second Space feature was originally designed to separate personal and work lives, but resourceful users have found creative uses for it. By creating a second space, you get an essentially pure Android with a separate set of icons that can be customized regardless of the main one.
In the second space, you can install a different theme, different widgets, even a different app arrangement. By switching between spaces through a sidebar or a fingerprint, you can dramatically change the experience of using your phone, for example, in one space there can be strict black and white icons for work, and in another there can be bright and animated ones for relaxation.
To activate, go to Settings → Second Space → Enable Second Space. The creation process will take a couple of minutes. After that, you can download a separate set of themes for this particular profile, which is the only way to have two different visual styles on the same device without using complex scripts.
- 🔄 Allows you to have two different sets of apps and themes on the same phone.
- 🔒 Separate access to data: photos and files in spaces are separated.
- ⚡ Quickly switching through the side notification panel.
- 📱 Ideal for testing new topics without risking the core system.
⚠️ Note: The second space takes up additional memory on the device, as it essentially creates a duplicate system files for the new profile.
Hiding and grouping applications into folders
Sometimes the best way to change icons is to remove the extra ones, and the standard shell allows you to hide applications or hide them in special system folders that look different from the usual ones, which helps create a minimalist desktop where only the most important icons remain.
Hidden Apps is available in the theme settings. Go to Settings → Apps → Hidden Apps. Here you can select programs that will disappear from the desktop and will only be accessible through a special gesture or password. This creates the illusion that only certain, specially selected apps with beautiful icons are installed on the phone.
And you also have folders, and in MIUI, folders can come in different sizes, and if you open a folder and click three dots (or name), you can choose the resize option, and a big folder with a beautiful name and apps that are matched inside it becomes a design element, distracting attention from the standard icons inside it.
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Tip: To create the perfect minimalism, leave only the watch and weather widget on the home screen, and remove all applications to hidden or second page. This will visually “clean” the interface without installing launchers.
Compatibility problems and their solution
When using built-in customization tools, users may find that some apps’ icons do not change or are displayed incorrectly, because developers of popular apps (e.g. Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram) often use their own graphic resources, which are more important than system ones.
In such cases, cleaning the Theme and System UI app cache helps. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find Themes, click Clear → Clear the cache. After that, restart the phone. Often this causes the system to re-tighten the style of the chosen one to all the available apps.
If that didn't work, then the theme doesn't support the app. In an Android ecosystem without third-party launchers, you can't force an app icon to be replaced unless the theme has a graphical counterpart, so you have to wait for the theme to update or look for an alternative set of icons where the app is drawn.
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Xiaomi’s built-in tools allow you to change 90% of the icons without software, but a third-party launcher may still be needed to customize every detail 100%, although this is not recommended for system stability.