How to make a gallery on Xiaomi as on iPhone: 5 working ways with photos and videos

Whether you’ve moved from iPhone to Xiaomi or just want to make your smartphone look more minimal and stylish, the standard MIUI gallery may seem too overloaded. Unlike Apple Photos’ laconic interface, where photos are sorted by years and animations are smooth and natural, the Gallery app on Redmi, Poco or Mi is often littered with unnecessary tabs, ads and unnecessary features.

Fortunately, there are several ways to bring the Xiaomi gallery experience closer to the iPhone, from simple theme settings to installing alternative launchers and even hidden MIUI tweaks. In this article, we’ll break down 5 proven techniques, including:

• 🎨 Change the theme to minimalist (including hidden themes for the design of the MIUI 14/15)
• 📱 Install launchers with support for iOS-like gallery (including Niagara Launcher and Lawnchair)
• 🔧 Configure the standard gallery through ADB and hidden parameters
• 📁 Use of alternative applications (Google Photos, Simple Gallery)
• 🔄 Transfer of metadata (dates, locations) for correct sorting by year

It is important to understand that it is impossible to fully replicate the functionality of the iPhone gallery on Android due to differences in the OS architecture, but visually and in terms of usability, the difference can be minimized.

1. Change the MIUI theme to iOS-like

The easiest way to change the look of a gallery is to install a theme that mimics the style of iOS. MIUI has both official themes in Themes and hidden options that don't show up in the default directory.

To find them:

1. Open the Themes app on your Xiaomi.
2. Go to the section My topics → Online.
3. In the search bar, enter the requests: 🔍 iOS 17 or Apple style 🔍 Minimalist gallery 🔍 Clean UI (minimalist)

Icons only

For deeper customization:

• 🛠️ Use themes marked [Full] — They change not only wallpaper and icons, but also the style of system applications, including the gallery.
• 🎭 Check out topics from authors @MiFan or @iOS_Themes (Your profiles can be found in the Authors section).

⚠️ Attention: Some topics may conflict with system fonts or animations, leading to slowdowns. Before installing, check other users' reviews in the topic section.

2. Install a launcher with an iOS-like gallery

If the theme change doesn’t work, the next step is to install an alternative launcher, some of which have an integrated gallery that’s as close to the iPhone as possible, or support widgets for quick access to photos.

The best options for Xiaomi:

Instructions for setting up Niagara Launcher (optimum option):

1. Install a launcher from Google Play.
2. Launch it and select as the default launcher.
3. Go to the launcher settings (Long tap on the home screen → Settings).
4. Turn on the option to show albums on the home screen.
5. In the Appearance section, select the iOS style for icons and animations.

Backup the home screen (screenshot or export via Settings → Additional → Backup)

Remove unnecessary widgets of the standard launcher

Check the launcher compatibility with the MIUI version (on the 4PDA or XDA forums)

Disable battery optimization for launcher (Settings → Applications → Permissions → Battery Optimization)

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⚠️ Note: Launchers like iOS Launcher can conflict with system gestures MIUI (For example, swipe up to return to the main screen. Before installing, check the gesture settings in Settings. → System system → Gestures.

3. Set up a standard gallery via ADB

If you don't want to install third-party apps, you can modify the standard MIUI gallery through ADB (Android Debug Bridge).

• 📅 Change the sorting of photos by date (like in iPhone).
• 🖼️ Disable video thumbnails in shared feed.
• 🔕 Hide unnecessary tabs (such as Recommendations or the Cloud).

For this:

1. Enable Developer Mode on Xiaomi: Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version (click 7 times)
2. Activate USB Debugging in Settings → Additional → For developers.
3. Connect the phone to the PC and execute commands (requires installed) ADB): adb shell settings put global gallery_sort_by_date 1 adb shell settings put global gallery_hide_video_thumbnails 1 adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.gallery.cloud

Transcript of commands:

• gallery_sort_by_date 1 — Sorting photos by date (like in iPhone).
• gallery_hide_video_thumbnails — Hiding video miniatures in a shared tape.
• pm disable-user com.miui.gallery.cloud – disables the Cloud tab.

💡

If no changes are applied after the commands are executed, restart the phone or clear the gallery cache (Settings → Applications → Gallery → Clear the cache).

⚠️ Attention: Some teams ADB They may be reset after the update. MIUI. To avoid this, create a script to automatically apply the settings when downloading (for example, via Tasker or MacroDroid).

Alternative gallery applications

If none of the previous methods worked, the option is to install a third-party gallery.

• 📅 Sorting photos by year/month (like in iPhone).
• 🖼️ Support HEIC (photo).
• 🔒 Lack of advertising and data collection.

The best options for Xiaomi:

Instructions for setting up Simple Gallery:

1. Install the app from Google Play.
2. Open the settings (⋮ → Settings).
3. In the View section, select: 📅 Date grouping → Year/month. 🖼️ Hide the video in the tape (if necessary). 🎨 Dark theme (for similarity to iPhone).

Folders.

Screenshots

Downloads

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Simple Gallery is the only free, open source app that completely replicates the logic of sorting photos by year, like the iPhone, without requiring registration or collecting user data.

5. Transfer of metadata for correct sorting

One of the key features of the iPhone gallery is that it automatically groups photos by year and event, and on Android, you need to have the correct metadata (dates, geotags) for each photo, and if you transfer photos from your iPhone to Xiaomi, that data can get lost.

To restore them:

1. Use the ExifTool app (for PC) or Photo Exif Editor (for Android) to edit metadata.
2. For batch processing on a PC, run the command (requires an installed ExifTool): exiftool -AllDates="2023:10:15 12:00:00" -overwrite_original -r /path/c/c/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p/p//p/p/p/p/p 2023:10:15 12:00:00 — date and time.
3. For Android, use Photo Exif Editor: Open the photo in the app. Press Edit and fix the Date Taken, Date Modified fields. Save the changes.

If the photos were taken on an iPhone and transferred via AirDrop or iCloud, check their metadata – often the dates are confused due to differences in the HEIC/JPEG formats. For conversion, use the iMazing HEIC Converter (PC) or HEIC to JPEG (Android).

6. Additional Tweets for Full Resemblance

To make the Xiaomi gallery look even closer to the iPhone, take a look at these details:

Animations and transitions:

• 🎞️ Install. MIUI Animation Changer (root rights required) to change the speed and style of animations.
• 🖥️ Include window animation in Settings → The phone. → Version. MIUI → Additionally. → Animation (if available).

Fonts and icons:

• 🔤 Install the San Francisco font (iOS font) through the Themes → Fonts.
• 📱 Use the iOS Glyphs icon pack (available from Icon Pack Studio).

Widgets:

• 📷 Add the Google Photos widget to the home screen – it shows the latest iOS-style shots.
• 📅 Month: Calendar Widget imitates the view of the iPhone calendar and can display a photo for a selected date.

⚠️ Warning: Changing system animations and fonts can lead to unstable interface performance, especially on smartphones with a high-end user experience. MIUI Below version 14, back up your Settings before experimenting. → Additionally. → Backup.

FAQ: Frequent questions