Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a situation where the screen suddenly overlaps with a pop-up with an offer to install an app or a news feed.This is not a system bug, but part of the company's marketing strategy to monetize free devices. However, for many users, such elements become a source of irritation, distraction from work and clog the visual space.
Fortunately, MIUI and the new HyperOS interface provide enough tools to fine-tune the look and feel, so you don't have to be a programmer or get root rights to get the interface back clean, you just have to go through multiple settings sections in sequence and turn off the redundant features that are activated by default in the factory.
In this article, we’ll look at all types of pop-ups, from intrusive ads in system applications to functional floating windows for multi-tasking. Careful steps will allow you to customize your phone to make it as comfortable as possible and devoid of digital noise.
Differences between Advertising and Functional Windows
Before you start setting up, it's important to understand the nature of the elements that appear. Not all floating windows are the same. Some are part of an MSA (MIUI System Ads) ad system, others are system widgets for quick navigation, and still others are a multitasking feature. Confusion in window types often leads to the user turning off useful features while leaving ads, or vice versa.
Ad blocks typically appear in standard applications like Explorer, Music or Security, and they can offer game installs, news articles or Mi Store merchandise, often with a small cross to close, which can sometimes be difficult to press, and they are found in recommendation services.
Functional floating windows, by contrast, are created by the user or system for convenience. For example, when watching videos in the video app, a thumbnail can pop up to allow you to watch content in other applications. There are also floating windows in multitasking mode, when the application is folded into a small square getting stuck above the desktop.
To effectively combat excess, you need to clearly identify the enemy. If the window offers to buy a product, it is advertising. If it shows the running application in thumbnail, it is a function of multitasking. It is critical not to confuse the system process msa with the vital services of Google, the removal of which will lead to the failure of the Play Market store.
- 📢 Advertising windows: arise spontaneously, contain commercial offers, require disabling recommendation services.
- 📱 Floating applications: created by the user to work with several tasks simultaneously, configured in the section "Multi-tasking».
- ⚙️ System widgets: widgets on the desktop or in the notification curtain that can be removed with a long tap.
Disabling system advertising and MSA services
The most common type of annoying windows is advertising, which is embedded in the MIUI shell deep enough, but it's shut down. The main culprit is the msa service (MIUI System Ads), which is the first and most important step in the fight for a clean screen, and without this action, other settings may not have the full effect.
To start, you need to go to the phone settings. Find the Password and Security section (or Advanced Settings in older versions). Inside the menu, find the Access to Personal Data item. This displays a list of all system services that have the right to collect data. You need to find the msa list and switch the switch to the "Switched off" position.
The system will start a countdown (usually 10 seconds) and will try hard to convince you to leave it as it is, claiming that without it, some functions will stop working. This is a standard trick. You have to wait for the timer to end and press the recall button. If you fail the first time, try repeating the procedure 2-3 times, since the servers can be overloaded.
☑️ Checklist of ad-shutdown
Once permission is revoked, it is also recommended to disable ad personalization. Go to Settings → Password and Security → Access to Personal Data and find Advertising. Revoke rights for it too. This will reduce the relevance of advertising, even if it remains somewhere, and remove some pop-up offers.
⚠️ Note: After disabling the msa service, in some rare cases, the themes in the Theme Store may stop opening or errors in the operation of system widgets may appear. If you encounter a critical interface failure, temporarily return the resolution for msa, restart the device, and then try to disable it again.
Configuring notifications in system applications
Even after the main ad engine is disabled, individual apps can continue to show pop-ups with news or promotions, as is typical of Xiaomi’s standard programs: Explorer, Downloads, Music, Video, and Security, each with its own recommendation settings that need to be disabled separately.
Start with the Security app, which most often generates pop-ups when cleaning memory or checking viruses. Open the app, click on the gear (Settings) in the upper right corner. Find the Receive recommendations section and disable it. Also, remove the boxes from "Get Statistical Data" and "Automatically Send Data."
The File Manager is the same. Click on the three menu bars on the top left, select Settings, then About. Here you need to find the Recommendations toggler and turn it off. In some shell versions, this item may be called "Get content" or "Show hot apps."
The Music and Video apps have a similar algorithm, and each of them (usually available through a side menu or profile) needs to find a privacy or content section and disable recommendation, which removes pop-ups that suggest listening to new tracks or watching movies.
| Annex | The path to adjustment | What to turn off | The result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security | Settings (cogs) | Receive recommendations | No pop-up windows when cleaning |
| Conductor | Menu → Settings → About the application | Recommendations | Clean file interface |
| Downloads. | Three points → Settings | Showing recommended | No Advertising in the File List |
| Topics | Profile → Settings | Personal recommendations | No ads on the main theme screen |
Managing floating windows of multitasking
If your problem isn't advertising, but that apps open in a small floating window and interfere with viewing, it's multitasking. In MIUI and HyperOS, this is done through Floating Windows, which allows you to run multiple applications at once, but sometimes it's activated randomly when swipes.
To remove a randomly created floating window, you click on its header (the strip on top of the thumbnail), you will see a menu where you should select the icon of the cross or press Close. If you want to completely prevent applications from opening in this mode, you can do this through settings.
Go to Settings → Special Features → Floating Windows. You can control the behavior of windows. However, finer settings are made for each application separately. Go to Settings → Apps → All applications, select the desired application (for example, Telegram or YouTube) and find Start in the floating window (or “floating windows”). Select the option “Switched off” so that the application always opens to the full screen.
Also worth checking is the sidebar settings. Frequently floating windows are created through it. Go to Settings → Special features → Sidebar. If you don't need the feature, just turn off the sidebar switchboard. This will remove the possibility of randomly calling mini-applications by swipe from the edge of the screen.
Secret method of dropping windows
Removal of widgets and tapes “Google Discover”
Often, "floating windows" are defined as desktop widgets or news feeds to the left of the home screen. Google Discover (or "Cards" in older versions) can load news and ads to create a sense of chaos. It's very easy to remove them.
Swipe right on the main desktop to go to the left-most screen (widget tape). At the top of the screen (or at the bottom, depending on the version), click on the gear icon or three dots. In the menu that opens, find the Card or App Tape switch and turn it off. Now, when swiping to the left, you will remain on the first desktop.
For the widgets on the table, any floating image can be removed, click on the widget and hold your finger until the menu appears, select Remove or drag the widget to the top of the screen where the basket appears, and if the widget is system and not removed, you can hide it.
To hide system widgets (such as Music or Scanner), go to table editing mode (close two fingers on the screen). Press Settings (cogs) → Hide widgets. Here you can deselect from those elements that you do not want to see on your device.
- 🗑️ Removal: Long tap → Remove (works for custom widgets).
- 🙈 Hiding: Finger-stripping → Settings → Hide widgets (for system elements).
- 📰 News Feed: Swipe left → A gear. → Deactivate Cards».
Blocking pop-up windows in the browser
Sometimes the problem is not the system, but the browser. If floating windows appear only while surfing the Internet, then the site is using aggressive advertising or you accidentally signed up for push notifications of a questionable resource. The built-in Mi Browser browser and Google Chrome have built-in blockers.
In Chrome, click on three dots in the corner → Settings → Site settings. Here you need to check two items: Pop-ups (should be prohibited) and Ads (should be blocked). Also go to Notifications and remove any suspicious sites from the list of allowed.
In the standard Mi Browser, the algorithm is similar. Open menus (three bars) → Settings → Privacy and security. Activate the ad blocker and disable pop-ups. If the problem persists, try clearing your browser data: Settings → Privacy → Clear the data.
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Use DNS to block ads throughout the system. In your Wi-Fi or mobile network settings (Private DNS), write the address: dns.adguard.com. This will block ads and pop-ups not only in the browser, but also in many applications and games.
Resetting interface settings in extreme cases
If none of the methods worked and floating windows keep popping up, there may have been a software crash or a setup conflict, in which case you can try resetting the launcher or all the applications, which will return the look to factory status, but will not delete your personal photos or contacts.
To reset the launcher, go to Settings → Applications → All apps. Find System Launcher (or System Launcher) on the list. Click Clean → Clear Everything. The screen will blink, icons can reconfigure. You will have to re-arrange the widgets, but the system interface errors must disappear.
A more radical method is to reset all the phone settings. Important: make sure to back up the data before doing so. Path: Settings → Phone → Reset → Erase all the data. This is guaranteed to remove any viruses or deep configuration errors that cause windows to appear.
⚠️ Note: Complete data cleanup ("Factory reset") deletes ALL files, photos, contacts and installed applications. Use this method only if you have made a full backup to Mi Cloud or your computer and other methods have not helped.
To sum up, most pop-ups on Xiaomi are the result of ad services or misconfigured multitasking. Sequential disabling of msa, setting up system applications and controlling access rights allow you to completely clean the interface. Your smartphone will work faster and more pleasantly, without unnecessary visual noise.
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The main secret of pure Xiaomi is not only to disable advertising, but also to regularly check the access rights of applications in the section “Access to personal data”.