How to change the voice assistant Xiaomi on Android

Xiaomi smartphone owners often face intrusive behavior built-in assistant Mi AI, which is activated by random touches or incorrect voice commands. staff assistant, focused primarily on the Chinese market, often poorly understands Russian language and offers features that are useless for users from the CIS. Changing voice assistant becomes not just a matter of convenience, but a necessity for comfortable use of the device.

Fortunately, the Android operating system allows you to flexibly manage this setting, replacing the standard application with more advanced analogues from Google or Yandex. In this article, we will discuss in detail the process of disabling Mi AI, installing alternatives and fine-tuning the system to work with the selected service.

Before making any changes, it is important to understand that a complete replacement of the system component may require several sequential actions. The MIUI or HyperOS interface has its own features that you need to consider. Below is a step-by-step guide to help you make a choice in favor of a more functional solution.

Why you should give up Mi AI in favor of alternatives

Xiaomi’s in-house voice assistant shells were designed with a view to China’s internal ecosystem. For users outside China, Mi AI’s functionality is often limited, and may mishandle Russian queries, confuse commands, or search Chinese services that are unavailable or irrelevant.

Switching to Google Assistant or Yandex Alice opens up deep integration with calendar, mail, maps, and smart homes, which learn from massive amounts of data and understand the context of the conversation much better, and third-party assistants often have a more pleasant and natural voice, and support a wide range of third-party applications.

⚠️ Note: When the system Mi is completely deactivated AI Some features tied to deep shell settings (such as controlling specific camera modes with voice) may stop working or require manual start-up.

Another important aspect is privacy, with many users choosing to use assistants that are in their region or whose privacy policies are more understandable, and replacing the standard module allows them to control what data is sent and where it is sent when processing voice requests.

Preparing the device for the change of assistant

Before you change the system settings, you need to make sure that the device has the desired analogue. For users of Google services, there is usually nothing additional to do, since Google Assistant is already built into the system. If you plan to use Yandex, its application must be pre-downloaded and logged in to your account.

An important step is to update all the system components, go to the settings and check for updates for the MIUI/HyperOS shell, as well as for Google Play services, which minimizes the risk of conflicts between the old version of the system framework and the new assistant application.

It is also worth preparing in advance. ADB-commands, if the standard methods of change does not occur (although in 95% of cases, the interface settings are enough). ADB and Fastboot, and the phone is debugging on USB. However, we will start with software methods that are safer for the average user.

Disconnecting and configuring Mi AI

To make a new assistant work properly, you often need to “free up” space for it by disabling or restricting your competitor’s activities. In modern versions of MIUI, you can’t completely remove Mi AI, as it is a system component, but it can be deactivated. Go to Settings → Additional Features → Mi AI.

You need to turn off all active triggers. Find the Voice Switch and turn it to the Off position. It is also recommended to turn off the Power Button activation if this option is available in your firmware version, which will prevent the Chinese Assistant from accidentally running when you are trying to call Google or Alice.

After disabling the basic functions, it is worth clearing the cache of the Mi AI application. This is done through the Application menu → All Applications → Mi AI → Clear the data. This operation will reset accumulated errors and temporary files that can interfere with the correct transfer of rights to the new assistant.

Install the application by default via ADB

In some cases, the Android interface prevents you from explicitly choosing a new assistant, hiding this option, and then the Android debugging bridge (ADB) comes to the rescue, which requires connecting your smartphone to your computer, but it is the most reliable way to force the right application to be assigned.

To start, turn on the developer mode on your phone (click seven times on the build number in the About Phone section) and activate USB Debugging. Connect the device to your PC, open the command line in the ADB folder, and enter a command to check the connection:

adb devices

Once you have access confirmed on your phone screen, type a command to reset your assistant preferences, which will return the system to a state where it will ask you which app to use to handle voice commands:

adb shell pm clear com.google.android.packageinstaller

Then you need to find the exact packet name of your new assistant. For Google Assistant, it's usually com.google.android.apps.googleassistant, for Yandex, it's ru.yandex.searchplugin or the like.

adb shell cmd appops set --uid com.google.android.packageinstaller RUN_IN_BACKGROUND allow

⚠️ Please be careful when putting commands into ADB. An error in the package name can cause no assistant to work and you will have to reset your phone settings to factory.

After you execute the commands, restart the device. When you first try to activate voice input (long pressing the power button or the home button), the system must output the application selection window. Choose the desired option and press "Always".

Google Assistant and Alice Yandex

After a successful change of priorities, you need to fine-tune the behavior of the new assistant. For Google Assistant, go to the application settings and select the language. It is recommended to set "Russian" as the main one, but leave English second if you use English-language content. Also turn on the "Voice Match" function so that the phone responds only to your voice.

If you've chosen Yandex, make sure that Alice is on the app settings. In the Voice section, you can select the timbre and the speed of speech. It's critical for both assistants to provide all the permissions they request: access to the microphone, geolocation, contacts and action history. Without that, the functionality will be stripped down.

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For better Google Assistant, enable Locked Screen Access in the Assistant settings, which will allow you to ask questions without unlocking your smartphone.

For the first few days, actively use a new assistant, adjust their answers if they don't understand you correctly, and neural networks adapt to your accent and your speech, becoming more useful every day.

Comparison of popular voice assistants

To make it easier for you to decide on the choice, we have prepared a comparative table of the main characteristics of popular assistants available for installation on Xiaomi.

As you can see from the table, for the Russian-speaking segment, Google and Yandex are the uncontested leaders. Mi AI loses to them in all respects, except perhaps, deep integration with Xiaomi hardware, but this niche is gradually filled by third-party developers.

The choice between Google and Alice often depends on your ecosystem, and if you use Yandex.Music and Taxi, Alice will be more convenient, and if you live on Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Assistant is the perfect choice.

Possible problems and solutions

During the setup process, users may encounter a situation where, after selecting a new application, the assistant call button stops responding or causes an erroneous application. In this case, first check the default section of the application in the phone settings. Make sure that the desired application is selected in the "Help" paragraph.

If the problem persists, try removing updates to the Google app (or other assistant) and then updating it again through the Play Market store or AppStore.This helps to reset internal version conflicts. MIUI background-access.

⚠️ Note: On some global firmware, Xiaomi has a hard-to-bind power button to Google Assistant.If you want to use Alice, you may need to assign Alice a long-press volume button call or use a widget on your desktop.

Another common problem is battery gluttony. New assistants can actively use the microphone to listen to the activation phrase. If you notice a quick discharge, try turning off the constant listening mode ("Hey Google" or "Hello Yandex") and activate the assistant only by touching the screen or button.

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The main secret of a successful replacement is not just to install the application, but to completely disable the triggers for running a regular Mi AI in the system settings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)