Owners of modern smartphones Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO often face a situation when the screen appears unwanted interface element — a bar at the bottom of the display. This gesture indicator or control can interfere with the view, overlap the content of applications or just annoy with its presence. This is especially noticeable when watching videos or using full-screen applications, where every pixel of space matters. In the operating system MIUI and the new HyperOS, there are various navigation mechanisms that generate this visual element.
There are several reasons for this band: it can be a regular gesture control indicator that tells the user where to swipe from, in other cases it can be a floating button or even an artifact of a system failure. Understanding the nature of this element is the first step to eliminating it. In this article, we will analyze all possible scenarios in detail and propose specific solutions for each case.
It's important to note that completely disabling the system navigation elements sometimes requires changing the standard interface settings. If you're used to classic three-button management, but the system imposes bar gestures, you'll need to switch mode. Let's look at the basic methods of setting up.
Identification of the type of navigation lane
Visual identification
Most people see a thin horizontal line at the bottom of the screen, which is a standard indicator for managing gestures in the style of the iPhone. It shows that swipe up will return you to the desktop, and swipe sideways will switch the application. However, sometimes the band can be wider, contain buttons or be part of a third-party launcher. In rare cases, this can be a system bug associated with incorrect display of fonts or zooming.
- 🔍 Thin grey line – Android gesture indicator that controls navigation.
- ⬜ Wide bar with three characters - classic navigation bar (buttons).
- 🔵 Floating circle or oval – the function “Soaring buttons” or Quick Ball.
- ⚠️ Multicolored or flashing band – possible rendering failure or notification.
If you've determined that your band is type one (Gestural Indicator), then the instructions you'll find most helpful, and for other types of solutions, they may be different, but often they're in the same menu sections.
⚠️ Note: If the strip appears suddenly after the system update and has a strange color or shape, this may indicate damage to the system files of the SystemUI interface.
Disabling the gesture indicator through settings
MIUI 12, 13, 14
HyperOS
To start, open the standard Settings app. Scroll down to the Additional Settings section. This is where the options that affect the look of the interface are hidden. Find Full-screen Mode (some versions may simply call it Navigation). In the menu that opens, you'll see two options: Buttons and Gestures.
If you have Gestures selected, the bar will always show at the bottom of the screen, so that it disappears, you need to select the option of the Button. Immediately after switching, the bar will disappear, and at the bottom there will be three virtual buttons: Back, Home and App Menu.
However, if you want to leave gesture control but remove the bar, standard system tools can not do this without third-party utilities, but there is a nuance: some versions of firmware for China (CN) or global beta versions, there is an option “Hide the gesture indicator.”
☑️ Navigation switching algorithm
Using third-party applications to hide
One of the popular solutions is the Navigation Bar Hider app, or something like Fluid Navigation Gestures, which basically works by creating a navigation layer that overlaps the standard system band, which allows you to keep swipes functional but clean the screen visually.
These programs require special permissions, and usually the app will ask you to enable access through ADB or to allow "Master over Other Windows" without these permissions, you will not be able to hide the system strip due to Android security restrictions.
How to give rights through ADB?
Third-party navigators may consume extra battery power as they are constantly active, and they may conflict with some games or apps that use full-screen mode.
Set up full screen mode in applications
To find these settings, go to Settings → Additional Settings → Full-screen Mode. Here you will see a list of all installed applications. If there is a tick in front of the desired program (for example, YouTube or Instagram), try changing its state, which can stretch the content to the full screen and hide black bars or interface elements.
This feature is especially useful for older applications that are not optimized for modern aspect ratios of Xiaomi screens. Forced stretching can remove black fields, but sometimes leads to the fact that part of the application interface (buttons, menus) is cropped or hidden behind the edge of the display.
| Type of application | Recommended setting | Possible effect | Risks. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Energize full screen | Maximum overview | Shifting the interface |
| Social media. | Auto/Default | Standard view | No. |
| Video players | Energize full screen | Cleans the lanes | Cutting the subtitles |
| Banking applications | Turn it off. | Stable work | Black fields on the sides |
Experiment with settings for each application individually. Global inclusion of the feature for all programs can lead to incorrect display of text in messengers or browsers.
Solving the problem with floating buttons
To turn off this item, go to Settings → Additional settings → Soaring buttons. The switch at the top of the screen must be activated. Turn it to the off position and the widget bar will disappear.
In some cases, users accidentally activate this feature by repeatedly tapping a specific area of the screen or using a combination of buttons. If the bar appears again after a reboot, check if the autostart option is enabled for system services responsible for special features.
💡
Tip: If you use a wide-framed protective glass, make sure it doesn’t override the proximity sensor or the bottom of the screen, which can cause false touch zone alerts and stripes.
Removing system errors and bugs
First, clear the cache of the System UI system application. Go to Settings → Applications → All applications. Find System UI (may be called System UI Launcher or simply System UI) in the list. Click Clear → Clear Cache. Fear not, it won't delete your personal data, only temporary interface files.
If the problem doesn't work out, check the themes installed. Third-party themes from MIUI Themes store often contain errors in status bar markup and navigation bar. Go back to the standard "Classic" or "Default" theme and check if the strip has disappeared.
⚠️ Warning: Resetting all settings to factory (Hard Reset) is guaranteed to remove any program bars, but will lead to complete loss of data. Use this method only as a last resort, previously backed up.