How to remove buttons on Xiaomi Redmi Note: hide navigation and free the screen

Virtual navigation buttons on the Xiaomi Redmi Note take up precious screen space, and their random clicks interfere with the comfortable use of the smartphone. This is especially true for models with a small display diagonal or narrow bezels, where every millimeter counts. Fortunately, MIUI offers several ways to hide or completely remove the system buttons – from standard gesture settings to deep changes through the developer.

In this article, we’ll break down all the working methods: how to disable the bottom navigation bar, switch to gesture control, hide buttons in full-screen applications, and even remove them through ADB for power users. It’s important to understand that not all methods are equally safe — some require unlocking the bootloader or root rights, which can affect the warranty. We’ll note the risks and give recommendations for each Redmi Note model (from Note 7 to Note 12 Pro+).

1. Standard button disabling via MIUI settings

The easiest and safest way to remove virtual buttons is to switch to gesture control. This method works on all Xiaomi Redmi Note smartphones with MIUI 10 and later, does not require root rights and does not affect the warranty. The gestures in MIUI are implemented intuitively: swipe up to return to the main screen, swipe with pause for multitasking, swipe from the edge to return back.

To activate the gestures:

• 📱 Open the Settings. → Display.
• 🔄 Select Full-screen Mode (or System Management in newer versions) MIUI)
• 👆 Slap on Gestures. MIUI (or full-screen gestures)
• ✅ Select the gesture type: "Swipe up" (recommended) or "Swipe off the sides"

After the device is rebooted, the virtual buttons will disappear and their functionality will be available through swipes. Please note that in some applications (for example, in games), gestures may conflict with internal mechanics - in this case, temporarily return the buttons through the notification curtain.

2. Hiding buttons in full screen mode (without turning off)

If you don’t want to give up virtual buttons altogether, but you need to temporarily free up the screen (for example, to watch videos or games), use immersive display mode. In MIUI, it’s called Full Screen Mode and hides the navigation bar, leaving only a small bar to call.

It can be activated in two ways:

• 🔳 Through the notification curtain: swipe down twice, find the Full Screen tile and tap it. The buttons will disappear, and swipe bottom up to return them.
• 🔧 Through Settings: Go to Settings → Display. → Full screen mode → Auto-open the navigation bar and enable the option.

⚠️ Attention: On the Redmi Note 7/7 Pro and older models full-screen mode may conflict with some banking applications (for example, Sberbank Online or Tinkoff.

3. Remove buttons through the developer settings

For power users who lacked standard methods, there is a way to disable virtual buttons through the Developer Settings.This method does not require root rights, but on some models, the Redmi Note can cause touch gestures to fail — be prepared to return the settings back.

Instructions:

1. Activate Developer Mode: Go to Settings → About Phone and tap the MIUI version 7 times.
2. Return to the main settings, open additional → for developers.
3. Find the option to Disable the Navigation Bar (or Hide the Navigation Bar in newer versions of MIUI).
4. Reset the device.

If after disabling the buttons, the screen began to react to swipes incorrectly (for example, multitasking does not open), reset the gesture settings:

Settings → Display → Full-screen mode → Reset gesture settings

Developer mode activated

Data backup created

Battery charge > 50%

Important notifications (bank, messengers) are disabled)-->

4. Complete button removal via ADB (for advanced)

If you need to permanently remove virtual buttons (for example, for custom firmware or custom launcher), you can use the ADB command. This method is suitable for the Redmi Note 10/11/12 and requires connecting the smartphone to the PC. Warning: improper use of ADB can lead to a device blink!

Step-by-step:

1. Install ADB Tools on your PC.
2. Enable USB debugging in the developer settings on your smartphone.
3. Connect Redmi Note to your computer and type in the command line: adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.full=*
4. Reset the device.

To return the buttons, use the command:

adb shell settings put global policy_control null

5. Hiding buttons in individual applications

Sometimes virtual buttons only interfere with specific applications, such as games (PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact) or video players, in which case you can configure exceptions for full-screen mode:

• 🎮 For games: open the game, call the control panel (swipe from the upper right corner), tap the icon Full-screen mode.
• 🎥 For video: on YouTube or MX Player deploy the video to the full screen – the buttons will disappear automatically.
• 📱 For all applications: in settings MIUI Select Special Permits → Full screen mode and add the desired applications to the list.

⚠️ Note: On Redmi Note 9 Pro and older in some games (e.g. Call of Duty Mobile), forced button hiding can lead to bans for using "unfair advantages." Before activating full-screen mode, check the game's community rules.

6. Alternative methods: launchers and custom firmware

If standard methods do not suit, consider installing third-party launchers or custom firmware.

• 🌐 Nova Launcher: allows you to hide the navigation bar through gesture settings (Nova Settings) → Gestures → Swipe up).
• 🔄 LineageOS: In this firmware, virtual buttons are disabled via Settings → Buttons → Enable on-screen nav bar.
• 📱 MIUI EU: European MIUI Offers advanced full-screen settings.

Note that custom firmware installation requires unlocking the bootloader, which will void the warranty and may result in data loss. Before experimenting, back up via Mi Flash Tool or TWRP.

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If swipes are not working properly after installing the custom launcher, try turning off the option "Optimize for MIUI" in the launcher settings, which often solves the problem of gesture conflict.

Frequent mistakes and their solutions

When trying to remove buttons on Xiaomi Redmi Note, users often face typical problems, and here are the most common ones and ways to fix them:

If none of the methods worked, check out the MIUI version: some beta firmware (MIUI 14 China Beta) may have the gesture control functions disabled, in which case upgrade to the stable version via Settings → System Update.

FAQ: Answers to popular questions

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The most reliable way to remove buttons without risk is to use standard MIUI gestures. Methods with ADB and custom firmware are suitable only for experienced users who are ready for possible failures.