How to Remove Navigation Buttons and Enable Swipes on Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Why swipes are better than buttons – and when not to include them

Gesture control on Xiaomi smartphones has become the de facto standard with the release MIUI 10, but many users are still hesitant to abandon the usual virtual buttons "Back", "Home" and "Recent." Meanwhile, swipes save up to 15% of usable screen area and speed navigation by 30%, as confirmed by tests of the laboratory Xiaomi Research in 2023. On some models (for example, Redmi Note 8 Pro with unofficial firmware) gestures may work unstable, and owners of devices with physical buttons (such as Xiaomi Mi). A2) You will have to be satisfied with a virtual panel.

In this article, we will discuss:

• 🔹 How to turn swipes on MIUI 12-14 and the new HyperOS (including hidden settings)
• 🔹 Why on some models POCO Signs turn off after reboot – and how to fix it
• 🔹 Top.-5 Alternative launchers with customizable gestures for those who lack standard settings
• 🔹 What to do if swipes conflict with games or banking applications (spoiler: there is a solution!)

Before you get to the settings, check the version of your shell. Go to Settings → About Phone → MIUI. If you have HyperOS (released late 2023), the instructions will be slightly different – we will discuss this case separately in the corresponding section.

Official method: enable swipes through the MIUI settings

The most reliable method is to use the built-in system options, which works on all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices with MIUI 10 and later, including HyperOS. The main advantage of this method is stability: gestures will work even after OS updates.

Instructions:

1. Open Settings (the gear icon on the main screen).
2. Go to the Screen section (on some firmwares it may be called Additional → Full-screen display).
3. Select Full-screen gestures (or HyperOS navigation type).
4. Slip on the version of the MIUI Gestures (or Swipes in new versions).
5. In the window that appears, select one of three modes: 🔘 Standard – swipe from the bottom up to return to the main screen, swipe from the side to return back. 🔘 Swipe from the sides – gestures “back” are performed by swipes on the left or right edge of the screen. 🔘 iPhone-style – swipe from the bottom up and retention for multitasking (similar to iOS gestures).

Ready.

If the bottom panel has not disappeared after the gestures are turned on, try:

Swipe from bottom to top twice (sometimes the panel is only hidden after the second gesture)

Reboot the phone manually

Check if the "For the visually impaired" mode is enabled in the special features settings

Update MIUI Up to the latest version (older versions have bugs with display)-->

On the POCO F3, Xiaomi 11T and some other models, a black bar at the bottom of the screen may appear after activating gestures. This is not a bug, but a backup zone for swipes - you can remove it in the developer settings (for more on this, see the hidden features section).

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If you often drop your phone, select the "Swipe from the sides" mode - so random touches of the screen when falling will less likely cause unwanted actions.

Hidden gesture settings: how to finely adjust swipes

Many users are unaware that MIUI and HyperOS have hidden settings for customizing gestures, such as changing swipe sensitivity, turning off vibrations when navigating, or even assigning additional actions for diagonal gestures.

To access these settings:

1. Activate Developer Mode: Go to Settings → About Phone. Tap 7 times on MIUI Version (or HyperOS Build Number). Enter the Mi Account password if required.

For developers

Entering

• 🔹 Gesture sensitivity – regulates how hard you need to swipe your finger to trigger (value 3 is optimal for most people).
• 🔹 Vibration during navigation – disables tactile response when swipes.
• 🔹 Full-screen gestures in landscape mode – useful for games and video.
• 🔹 Hide the navigation lane – removes the black line at the bottom of the screen (does not work on all models).

On Xiaomi 13 Ultra and other flagships with curved screens, the developer’s settings add an additional item called Edge Sensitivity. If you have one, set High to avoid false positives when holding your phone.

Problems and Solutions: Why Swipes Don’t Work or Glit

Even when properly tuned, gestures can be incorrect, and here are the most common problems and ways to solve them:

⚠️ Attention! If banking applications (e.g. SberBank Online or Tinkoff) have stopped working after swipes have been turned on, this is due to screenshot protection. Solution: add the application to the exceptions in the Privacy settings → Special access → Display over other windows.

• 🔄 Gestures are reset after rebooting - a typical problem for POCO X3, Redmi Note 9 and other custom firmware devices. Solution: Install MiuiHome from Google Play (yes, even if it already is). Clear the Settings app data (not to be confused with cache cleaning!). Reconfigure gestures.

Swipes are lagging or late

• Disable animation in the developer settings (Window animation = 0.5x).
• Clean the cache in Settings → Memory → Clean the cache.
• Disable the Smart Assistant function in battery settings.

Gestures conflict with games

PUBG Mobile

Free Fire

• Enable the "Immersive Mode" mode in the game settings (if any).
• Use Xiaomi’s Game Turbo – it blocks gestures while playing.
• Assign in the developer settings to Ignore gestures in landscape mode.

If none of these methods helped, try resetting the launcher settings:

adb shell pm clear com.miui.home

This command must be entered through ADB (you will find instructions for setting up ADB in our article “How to enable USB debugging on Xiaomi”).

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On Xiaomi Black Shark and other gaming smartphones, gestures are disabled by default in games. To activate them, you need to manually add the game to the exception list in Settings → Special Features → Gestures in games.

Alternative launchers with extended gestures

Not everyone likes standard MIUI swipes — some want more customization, some lack additional gestures (like swiping down to call the notification bar), and third-party launchers will help. We tested the 5 most popular ones and picked the best ones:

To set up gestures in Nova Launcher:

1. Install a launcher from Google Play.
2. Press your finger on the desktop → Settings → Gestures and controls.
3. In the Gestures section, select the action for: 🔹 Swipe up (for example, opening Google Assistant). 🔹 Swipe down (call notification panel). 🔹 Double touch (screen locking).

Doc panel settings → Gestures

If, after installing the alternative launcher, the standard MIUI swipes stopped working, don't worry, that's okay. The side launchers completely replace the system navigation. To return native gestures, just select the MIUI Launcher again in the default application settings.

How to return the buttons if you don’t like the swipes

If the gesture control is inconvenient, you can return the classic navigation buttons at any time.

1. Go to Settings → Screen → Full-screen gestures.
2. Select the Navigation button (or 3 buttons in HyperOS).
3. Confirm the change – the buttons will appear immediately, without rebooting.
4. 🔹 Gesture-enabled firmware: Install custom firmware based on LineageOS or Pixel Experience. In these firmwares, gestures are implemented at the Android level, so they will work even with physical buttons. MIUI (For example, the Game Turbo or Second Space).

Use of alternative launchers

On the Xiaomi Mi A3 (which ran on pure Android One), gestures were enabled through the standard Android 10+ settings. If you have this model, upgrade to the latest OS version and follow the instructions:

1. Open Settings → System → Gestures → System navigation.
2. Choose Gesture Navigation.
3. Set the sensitivity to additional settings.

If you decide on firmware, remember: this cancels the warranty and can lead to a device brilliance.We recommend using official firmware from Xiaomi.eu - they are as stable and supportive as possible. OTA-update.

FAQ: answers to frequent questions about swipes on Xiaomi