Full screen photo when calling Xiaomi Redmi 9: the full guide

Modern smartphones, including the popular Xiaomi Redmi 9, feature 18:9 or 20:9 elongated displays, a design feature that makes it difficult to display standard contact photos during incoming calls. Often users are faced with a situation where the image is cropped on the sides or, conversely, has huge black fields at the top and bottom, which significantly reduces the aesthetics of the interface.

The problem is that the standard gallery and phone book don't always handle frames of different resolutions correctly. The MIUI operating system tries to adapt the image to the screen format, but the automatic algorithm often gets it wrong. In this guide, we'll look at proven ways to get a photo to occupy the entire available display area without distortion and empty fields.

You don't have to be a technician to get the perfect result, but you just need to do a few sequential things using built-in tools or third-party utilities, and we'll look at both the standard editing methods and more advanced customization options that will help personalize your Redmi 9 beyond recognition.

Features of the Redmi 9 screen and image format

The screen of the Xiaomi Redmi 9 smartphone has a resolution of 1080 × 2340 pixels. This means that the image for the perfect display must correspond to these proportions, approximately 9:19.5. Standard photos taken on the main camera usually have a ratio of 4:3, and pictures from social networks can be square 1:1. It is because of this discrepancy when you set up a contact that the effect of “trimming” or the appearance of fields occurs.

When you upload a normal photo to a contact, the system automatically centers it around, cutting off the extra one, which can leave the face of the subscriber outside the visible area and the background completely lost, and understanding the physics of the display helps to properly prepare the source file before it is installed in the phone book.

It is important to consider that the area allocated to the avatar during the call may be slightly different from the full resolution of the matrix due to interface elements such as the reset button or the name of the caller. So the ideal photo should be slightly wider and higher than it seems at first glance, so that the edges do not go into the blind zone.

• 📱 Redmi 9 display resolution is 2340 pixels vertically, which requires vertical orientation of the photo.
• ✂️ Standard 4:3 photos are automatically framed in the center when set to contact, losing the side parts.
• 🖼️ For better quality, the original image must have a resolution of at least 1080 pixels across the width.

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Use high-resolution photos (at least 2 MP) to ensure that when zooming to the full screen, the picture remains clear and does not turn into a set of pixels.

Preparing photos through the built-in editor

The first and most reliable step is to pre-process the image with the help of the MIUI shell itself. The built-in gallery editor has enough functionality to bring the photo to the desired view. Open the desired image in the Gallery app and click on the Change button.

From the tool menu, select the option "Card" and you need to manually set the aspect ratio. While there may be no "Full screen call" option, you can choose to freely fram the frame and stretch the frame as much as possible so that it occupies the entire preview area. Make sure that the face or important object is in the center of the composition.

After framing, you often need to make an additional correction. Use the Turn tool if the photo is littered on the horizon. You can also use filters or brightness settings, because on a bright screen, dark photos may look worse when you call than in the gallery. Save the result as a copy so you don't lose the original.

Remember that compression algorithms can affect quality. If a photo looks blurry after installing it, try reducing the final resolution of the file in the editor to 1080p before saving it. Sometimes this paradoxical action helps the system process the contact thumbnail faster and more correctly.

Use of third-party pruning applications

If the standard features aren't enough, specialized apps from the Google Play store come to the rescue, programs like "Square Fit Photo Video Editor" or "Photo & Picture Resizer" allow you to create images with the exact dimensions you need for your screen, which is especially true if you want to make a collage or add a frame.

The idea is to create a Redmi 9 screen resolution canvas and put your photo on it, so you can add a blurry copy of the original to the background to fill in the empty spaces that normally become black fields, which creates a depth effect and makes the image visually filled.

⚠️ Warning: When installing third-party photo apps, carefully check the permissions you request. Don't give contacts and calls to unknown image editors, limit yourself to accessing only the storage.

After processing in a third-party application, save the file to a separate folder, such as "Avatars", which will make it easier to find the right frame when you set it up for contact, this approach gives maximum control over how the image will look in the interface of the caller.

Instructions for installation of photo on contact

Once the image is ready, you need to correctly assign it to the contact. Go to the Contacts or Phone app and find the person you want. Click on the subscriber's name to open the card, and then select the Change button (usually a pencil icon).

In edit mode, click on the round camera icon or the current image. The system will suggest you choose the source: take a photo or choose from the gallery. Select Gallery and find your prepared file. After selecting, the system will show the framing screen.

At this point, it's critical not to rely on automatic detection. Even if the photo is already cropped, the contact setting interface may suggest that you crop it again. Stretching the area with your fingers to take up the maximum area available for selection. Press "Ready" or "Save."

The way to set up contacts:


Phone → Contacts → Choose contact → Change → Photo → Gallery → Select photo → Save

If you see that the photo is still cropped after saving, repeat the procedure, but when you select it in the gallery, try to choose another photo or go back to the pre-processing step. Sometimes cleaning the cache of the Contacts app before trying again helps.

Setting up theme and style of calling in MIUI

The appearance of the incoming call screen depends not only on the photo itself, but also on the active theme of the design. A standard MIUI theme can have strict limits on the size of the avatar. To get a photo truly on the whole screen, you often need to change the theme to a custom one.

Go to the Themes app on your Xiaomi Redmi 9. Search for queries like "Full screen caller," "Big avatar" or "iOS style." Many third-party themes rework the call interface by making the photo background or zooming it to maximum sizes, ignoring standard frames.

Setting a theme is the most effective way to change the logic of display, but it is worth remembering that some heavy themes may have a slight effect on the speed of opening the call interface. Choose themes with high ratings and a lot of installations for stable operation.

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Changing the theme is the only way to get the system interface to display a photo of the contact in a non-standard, enlarged way that goes beyond the usual circle.

Solving problems with display and quality

Even after all the settings, there may be nuances, such as a photo that looks crisp in the gallery but is soapy when you call, because the system creates a thumbnail to quickly display in the list and renders a large photo separately when you call it in, and if the thumbnail cache is overflowing or corrupted, there may be errors.

Try clearing the Contacts and Phone cache. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps, find Contacts, select Memory, and click Clear Cache. Don't confuse it with Clear All, otherwise you may lose your call history if it's not synced.

⚠️ Note: If you use contact sync via Google Account, changes made to your phone may be overwritten by data from the cloud the next time you sync. Make changes to your photo via the contacts.google.com web interface for reliability.

The file format can also be a problem. Redmi 9 works best with JPG/JPEG. Images in PNG with transparency or HEIC (from iPhone) can be displayed incorrectly or with a black background instead of a transparent one.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)