Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphone owners often face the urge to personalize their device immediately after purchase. The standard MIUI shell or the new HyperOS are functional, but look rather utilitarian and familiar to millions of users. However, the hidden potential of the system allows you to turn a standard interface into a work of digital art without obtaining root rights.
The process of changing the appearance involves not only changing the wallpaper, but also deep processing of system elements. You can change fonts, application icons, transition animations and even the behavior of the lock screen, which gives you the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and adapt the gadget to your taste.
In this article, we’ll look at proven ways to make your Xiaomi truly unique.We’ll look at built-in tools, third-party launchers, and hidden settings that will open new horizons in your smartphone’s design.
Magic of themes in the app “Themes”
The most obvious, but often underrated, way to transform is by using an in-built theme store. Themes is the central node of customization in the Xiaomi ecosystem, and you can find thousands of design options created by designers and the community alike.
However, standard search often hides really good work. To find hidden gems, try changing the region in the app settings. Switching to India, Indonesia or Russia can open up access to a completely different catalog of topics that are not available in your current region.
- 🎨 Look for themes marked “Premium” or “Designer” and they often have better detail work.
- 🌏 Change the region in the settings of the “Themes” application to expand the library.
- ⚙️ Pay attention to the compatibility of the theme with your version of Android or MIUI.
- 🔄 Regularly update the app cache if the themes stop loading.
It is important to understand the difference between a full theme and individual components: a full theme replaces wallpaper, icons, system sounds, lock screen and settings menu style. Component themes allow you to change only specific elements, such as only the control panel or only icons, leaving the rest unchanged.
When you install a new theme, the system may request permission to change system settings. This is the standard HyperOS security procedure. After applying the changes, it is recommended to restart the device so that all graphic elements are rendered correctly and without artifacts.
Working with fonts and text size
Fonts are clothing, and the choice of text has a profound impact on how you perceive information. The MIUI and HyperOS shells have a powerful built-in font editor. Going to the screen settings or the Themes app → the Fonts tab, you'll find dozens of options, from strict classics to pretentious handwriting styles.
Customization of fonts not only changes aesthetics, but also improves readability. For visually impaired people, there are special bold fonts, and for minimalists, thin and light typefaces. Some fonts support dynamic thickness change depending on the context.
⚠️ Note: Installing fonts from unverified third-party sources (not through the theme store) can lead to “squares” instead of letters in some apps or even cause a cyclic smartphone bootloop.
Beyond style, text size is critical. In today's high-screen smartphones, it's important to zoom in correctly. Too small text makes you squint, too large breaks the layout in apps. The perfect balance is in the Settings menu → Screen → Text size.
Also worth paying attention to the boldness of the font, newer firmware versions have a separate bold setting that works regardless of the font chosen, which allows you to make the text more contrasting without the need to install heavy graphics packages.
Lock screen and always on display
The lock screen is the first thing you see when you pick up your phone. Standard clocks and dates look boring. Settings → Lock screen hides a lot of options for creativity. You can choose the style of the watch, add pedometer widgets, weather or music player directly to the locked screen.
Always On Display (AOD) turns a switched-off screen into an information bar, and on AMOLED-supported screens, this looks particularly spectacular, and you can customize the display of images, animations, or even video wallpapers (on new models) that are activated when you lift your phone.
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Use the Smart AOD feature to make the screen only light up when you’re looking at your phone, saving battery life and making interactions more natural.
For maximum effect, use the Wallpaper Store in the lock screen settings, where dynamic wallpapers are available that respond to touch or time of day, for example, the landscape can smoothly transition from dawn to dusk during the day.
| Type of AOD Content | Impact on the battery | Visual effect | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static clock | Low. | Minimalism | Daily use |
| Animated figures | Average. | Dynamics | For a demonstration |
| Video wallpaper (LOP) | High. | Maximum | Rarely/Charging |
| Light effects | Average. | RGB lighting | Games and media |
Keep in mind that complex animations on the lock screen can consume a significant amount of power.If autonomy is a priority for you, it is better to choose a static but stylish design with large, well-read numbers.
Control Panel and Notification Center
In the latest versions of HyperOS and MIUI 14, the Control Center became a separate editable element, which used to be a monolithic space, but now you can change the transparency, curvature and location of the sliders.
To make the panel look more beautiful, use the Control Panel Style feature, where you can choose between a classic look (like pure Android) and a modern look (divided into notifications and switches), a modern look that looks more futuristic and better adapted for larger screens.
- 🔘 Include “Classic Style” if you are used to the order of the icons in a row.
- 🌫️ Use translucent themes to create a depth effect (Glassmorphism).
- 🎛️ Change the order of the switches, bringing the most important (lightlight, Wi-Fi) to the fore.
- 🎨 Choose the color of accents in the tone of the main wallpaper for harmony.
And you also have volume sliders, and you press volume buttons, you get a visualizer, and in some subjects, it changes to an equalizer or an abstract wave, and it's a little bit of a trifle, but it adds a sense of vitality and responsiveness to the system.
☑️ Setting up the control panel
If standard features aren’t enough, there are modules for LSPosed (requires bootloader unlocking) that allow you to completely redraw the control panel by adding an iOS-style watch or changing the shape of the brightness sliders.
Third-party launchers and icons
When built-in tools are scarce, third-party launchers come to the rescue, programs that completely replace the desktop. Nova Launcher, Lawnchair or Smart Launcher give you control over every pixel of the screen. You can customize the grid of any density, gestures, animations of folding applications.
However, installing a third-party launcher on Xiaomi has its own peculiarities: the system can aggressively close the background processes, which leads to twitching animations or resetting settings. To avoid this, you need to lock the launcher in memory and give it all the necessary permissions.
⚠️ Warning: After installing a third-party launcher, the animation of opening applications can become a jerk, this is solved by turning on the option “Accelerate Animations” in the settings of the launcher itself or turning off optimization. MIUI developer menu.
Icon packages deserve special attention. Even without changing the launcher, many popular packages (for example, Whicons, LineX) are used through the Themes app, which is the safest way to get a uniform style for all applications, even if the native icons look scattered.
For advanced users, you can create your own icon sets through the Icon Pack Studio app. You can redraw icons of your favorite apps to match your color solution perfectly.
Hidden settings and animations
Deep in the Developer Menu, you have settings that directly affect your visual perception of speed and fluidity. Standard animations in MIUI can seem like stretchy. By zooming in on the animation of the windows, transitioning and animator duration by 0.5x, you make the interface visually volatile and instantaneous.
To get into this menu, you need to quickly click on the build number 7 times in the About section, and then the option “Developers” will appear in the additional menu, and you can also turn on the screen refresh rate display to make sure your 120Hz monitor is working correctly.
Secret animation of "Superbugs"
Another life hack is widgets. HyperOS has made widgets interactive and more beautiful. Don't clutter the screen with them, but use them to create compositions. For example, a group of widgets of weather, time and calendar in a single style can become a central element of the design of the home screen.
Also don't ignore the sound design. A beautiful phone should sound beautiful. Replace the system sounds of notifications, lock screen and charge with something more enjoyable. There's a "Sounds" section in the theme store where you can find quality audio files.
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A comprehensive design approach (themes + fonts + widgets) is better than changing one element.