How to Make More Icons on Xiaomi’s Desktop: The Complete Guide

Xiaomi smartphone owners often face the desire to personalize the interface to make it more eye-friendly. The standard icon size may seem too small, especially on high-resolution screens or people with reduced vision. Fortunately, the MIUI shell and HyperOS provide flexible tools to fine-tune the desktop without the need for root rights.

There are several proven ways to scale up interface elements, you can take advantage of the built-in grid settings, change the theme of the design, or install a dedicated launcher, each with its own characteristics and affects the overall look of the system in different ways.

In this article, we will discuss in detail all the options available for increasing icons. We will consider both the standard tools of the system and the capabilities of third-party software so that you can choose the best option for yourself.

Configure the desktop grid through the system menu

The easiest and safest way to visually zoom in on icons is to change the number of items that are displayed on the screen, and the logic behind the MIUI shell is that the fewer cells in the grid, the more space is allocated to each individual icon, and you don't need to install additional apps.

You need to go to the system settings. In the Screen menu or directly in the Desktop section (the path may vary depending on the firmware version), find the Grid option, and here you will be asked to select a configuration, for example, 4x5 or 5x6 instead of the standard 6x7.

⚠️ Note: When choosing a grid with fewer columns, some widgets may shift or change their size, so check the location of important elements after applying the settings.

Once the setting is changed, the system will automatically redesign the desktop, and the application icons will become noticeably larger, and the distance between them will increase, which will improve the readability of signatures.

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Reducing the number of columns in the grid is the most effective standard method of increasing the size of icons without losing image quality.

Using the Themes app to scale up

The second powerful tool is the built-in Themes app, which many users don’t know is that some font and icon settings can be adjusted through an account profile or specific theme settings without even changing the visual style completely.

Open the Themes app and go to your profile (the person icon in the corner). Select Settings and find the option "Size of font and icons." Here, you can slide up to 20% of the standard interface element size.

• 📱 Open the “Themes” app on the main screen.
• 👤 Click on the profile icon in the lower right corner.
• ⚙️ Select “Settings” in the menu that appears.
• 🔍 Find the section "Size of font and icons».

This feature works regardless of the theme you have installed, and you can use the standard Classic theme or any other one downloaded from the store, and adjust the scale of the items.

Change of launcher as a radical method

If standard features are not enough, you can completely replace the desktop shell by installing a third-party launcher from Google Play, which gives maximum control over the appearance, allowing you to adjust the size of each icon separately or set general scale parameters.

Popular launchers such as Nova Launcher, Microsoft Launcher or Smart Launcher allow you to set an arbitrary number of rows and columns in the Desktop Grid and Application Menu settings, and they often have a separate “Icon Size” slider.

To install a new launcher, download it, launch it, and follow the instructions on the screen. Android ask permission to use this application as its primary. Once confirmed, the new interface will replace the standard POCO Launcher or MIUI Launcher.

⚠️ Warning: Third-party launchers may consume more RAM, which on budget Redmi or Poco models sometimes leads to more frequent unloading of background applications.

One-hand mode and an increase in the interface

Android and MIUI special features have features designed for people with visual impairments that also help to increase all elements, including icons.

Go to Advanced Settings and select Special Features, and you are interested in Text Size and Display or Enlargement. Activating Large Text Mode often automatically increases the size of the icons on the menu and desktop.

Using these features makes the interface more readable, but it can lead to less information being placed on the screen at the same time, a trade-off between ease of reading and density of data.

Problems with scaling in different versions of MIUI

Users of different firmware versions (MIUI 12, 13, 14, HyperOS) may notice differences in the settings. In new versions of HyperOS, scaling algorithms have become smoother, but sometimes old themes may not display correctly.

If the icons are blurred or “gotten” after changing the settings, try resetting the launcher settings. To do this, find Desktop in application management, clear the cache and data, and this will return the grid to the factory state, after which the setting can be repeated.

Also worth considering is the resolution. On models with FullHD+ and above, fine details are seen better, so standard icons may seem small. On HD+ screens, the same settings can give an overly large result.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

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For the best image quality of icons, use vector themes or themes marked HD/4K in the app store when zooming in.