Personalizing your smartphone interface is not just a way to stand out, it’s also an opportunity to make interaction with your device more comfortable and intuitive. Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices running on MIUI or HyperOS often wonder how to change the standard look of the on-screen keyboard. Standard system settings offer a wide range of functionality, but basic themes may seem boring or not suit your style.
The process of changing the color gamut of typing depends primarily on which application you use to type. Unlike control buttons or application icons, the keyboard is a third-party or system service that has its own design settings. Most often on Android smartphones, Google's Gboard is pre-installed by default, but many users prefer to install alternatives like SwiftKey or Yandex Keyboard.
In this article, we will take a look at all the design changes available, and you will learn not only to choose ready-made solutions from the gallery, but also to create your own unique themes using personal photos, which will allow you to fully adapt the interface to your taste, making the typing process more enjoyable.
Standard features of changing theme in Gboard
The most common keyboard option on Xiaomi devices is Gboard. This app has a built-in theme store that allows you to quickly change the color palette. To get started, you need to go to the settings of the input application itself, not the general settings of the phone. Click on the gear icon, which is usually located in the top of the keyboard, or find the application in the list of installed programs.
You're interested in the Topics section of the Settings menu, and it opens up a gallery of available designs, sorted by Recommended, Bright, Dark, and more, and you can pick any option you like, and it will instantly apply to your current layout, and it's the fastest way to change the color of your Android keyboard without having to install any additional software.
However, standard themes can be limited in functionality: They only change the color of buttons and backgrounds, but do not always allow you to fine-tune transparency or add complex gradients. However, for most users, an embedded gallery is enough to refresh the appearance of the interface.
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The built-in Gboard theme gallery is the safest and fastest way to change the design without requiring third-party apps or complex customizations.
- 🎨 Wide selection of (presets) in the official Google gallery.
- ⚙️ Possibility of fine tuning the brightness of the selected theme by a slider.
- 🔄 Automatic update of theme collection through the Play Store.
- 📱 Integration with the dark theme of the Android system to save energy.
It is worth noting that some themes can be dynamic and change their shade depending on the time of day or open application, if such a feature is supported by your version of MIUI.
Using personal photos for the background of the keyboard
If the finished solutions seem too trivial, you can use your own images. The custom theme creation feature allows you to set any photo from your Xiaomi gallery as the background of your keyboard. This is especially true for those who want to see their favorite landscapes, pets or abstract patterns with each set of messages.
To implement this idea, reopen the Themes menu in the Gboard settings and click on the plus + icon or the Create Theme button. The system will prompt you to select an image from the device's memory. After selecting a photo, you can crop it, selecting the area that will be visible under the buttons.
⚠️ Warning: When choosing a too colorful or contrasting image as a background, make sure the letters remain readable. Gboard automatically darkens the photo, but in some cases, the text may merge with the details of the picture.
Once you select an image, you can adjust the transparency of the keys, so you can make the buttons completely transparent, leaving only the letters, or you can make them dense and opaque, which is a critical parameter for ergonomics and visual perception.
How to improve reading on a colorful background?
The theme you create is stored in your phone's memory and can be easily switched at any time. You can create multiple options for different moods: a strict one for work and a bright one for communicating with friends. The flexibility of settings allows you to achieve exactly the result you want.
Setting up the Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard
Many Xiaomi users prefer to install Microsoft SwiftKey because of its advanced text prediction algorithm and rich customization capabilities.This tool offers perhaps the deepest level of look and feel customization available on Android.
To change the color in SwiftKey, you need to go to the Themes section in the side menu of the app, and here you will find not only ready-made color schemes, but also the ability to create your own gradients. You can choose two colors and adjust the angle of the gradient, giving you a unique combination that no one else has.
SwiftKey also allows you to resize your keyboard, add a row of numbers all the time, and change the character font. All of these changes are applied in real time, so you can immediately evaluate the result. The app syncs your themes through the cloud, so you don't lose your settings when you change your phone.
- 🌈 Gradient Designer with a selection of any shades of spectrum.
- 🖼️ Support for background images with blurring effect.
- 📐 Possibility to change the size of the keyboard and the height of the buttons.
- 🔤 Customize the individual style for different input languages.
This ensures that your vocabulary and preferences are preserved, and if you type in multiple languages frequently, SwiftKey’s flexibility will be an indispensable asset.
Specific design on the shell of MIUI and HyperOS
Xiaomi smartphone owners need to consider the features of the branded shell. In some regions and versions of MIUI, the system can force its themes to apply to system elements, including the keyboard. This means that even if you set up Gboard, the system theme can override your settings.
To avoid conflicts, it is recommended to use the Themes app built into the phone itself, which can find third-party keyboard themes that are designed specifically for the Xiaomi interface. However, be careful: installing themes from unverified sources can lead to unstable system operation.
The new HyperOS shell has improved the integration of system fonts and colors. If you change the system theme, the keyboard can automatically adjust to the overall style, ignoring the individual settings of the input application, in which case you need to manually disable the application of the theme to the keyboard in the design settings.
| Parameter | Gboard | SwiftKey | MIUI System Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty setting up | Low. | Medium | Tall. |
| Choosing the colors | Ready palettes | Full spectrum | Depends on the topic. |
| Stability | Tall. | Tall. | Medium |
| Impact on the battery | Minimum | Minimum | Possibly elevated |
Understanding these differences will help you avoid confusion when the customized color suddenly disappears after a system upgrade or a change in desktop wallpaper.
Advanced Customization through Third Party Apps
For those who want to go beyond standard settings, there are specialized launcher applications for keyboards, programs such as Better Keyboard or Fonts Keyboard, allow you to change not only the color, but also the shape of the buttons, add click sounds and even click animations.
Installing these applications requires advanced permissions, and you'll need to give access to input and display control over other windows, which is a necessary step, because the keyboard is a high-access system component.
⚠️ Warning: Be extremely careful when installing little-known keyboards from unverified developers.They may collect data you enter, including passwords and card numbers. Use only verified apps from Google Play.
With these tools, you can create a truly unique interface that mimics the mechanical keyboard or style of retro consoles. However, it is worth considering that redundant animation and heavy themes can consume more CPU resources, which on budget models of Redmi or Poco can lead to micro-latency when printing.
☑️ Security check of the new keyboard
If you notice that the phone started to run slower after installing a new keyboard, it's best to go back to the standard Gboard.The balance between beauty and performance is a key factor in the comfortable use of the smartphone.
Solution: When settings are not saved
Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the selected color is reset after a phone restart or app update.This can be due to aggressive battery optimization in MIUI, which "kills" the background tuning processes.
To fix this, go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find your keyboard and select AutoStart. Allow the application to start automatically. Also, the battery menu should remove background restrictions for this service.
Another reason could be the conflict of Android versions: newer versions of the operating system (Android 13/14) have stricter security mechanisms, and some old themes may not be supported, in which case the only solution is to update the keyboard app to the latest version through the store.
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If the keyboard color gets lost after the system update, try clearing the keyboard app cache in the memory settings without deleting personal data.
In rare cases, it helps to completely reset the keyboard to the factory settings, so it will return to the original look, and then you can re-apply the desired theme, without any configuration errors, and this often solves the problems with the "glutch" interface.