Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a situation where many messages accumulate on the lock screen or in the notification curtain, and app icons remain unchanged on the desktop.This creates an illusion of calm, while messengers can expect dozens of unread messages or missed calls. A feature that solves this problem is called “Tags” or “Badge notifications”, and it allows you to display the number of events directly on the application icon.
Activating this option greatly improves the productivity of your device, since you no longer need to unlock your phone and open each application separately to check for new information. However, in the shell of MIUI and the new HyperOS, notification settings are scattered across different menus, which can cause difficulties for inexperienced users. In this article, we will discuss in detail the algorithm for activating tags, and also look at the nuances of this feature in different versions of the software.
It's worth noting that the visual display of the counters may vary depending on the model of your gadget and the version of the Android operating system installed. Somewhere it will be a red dot, some a number in a circle, and in some cases the user can choose the display style himself. Let's figure out how to manage these settings for maximum comfort.
The basics of the notification system MIUI and HyperOS
Xiaomi’s MIUI shell is based on Android, but has a deeply redesigned interface and process logic, and notification management is more aggressive than Android’s, in order to save battery life and keep the system running, which is why standard Android settings may not work as expected and require intervention through the company’s settings menu.
The Badges in HyperOS and MIUI are closely linked to the Notification Management Center, and when you receive a message, the system processes it first through Google services or its own push services, and then decides how to inform the user. If the settings allow the icon to be displayed, a visual token appears on the application icon, which can be just an indicator of the presence of an event or an exact numerical value.
It's important to understand the difference between "notification on the lock screen," "pop-up" and "tag on the icon." The first two options inform you when the data arrives, whereas the label on the icon is a static indicator that hangs on the icon until you read the message or clear the notification.
⚠️ Note: Some global firmware versions (Global) ROM) The menu may be different from the Chinese version (CN ROM). If the paths described below do not match yours, try searching by settings.
System constraints can also affect badge performance, for example, if an application is running in the background with restrictions (which is standard for MIUI), the tag may not update in real time until you open the application, in order to prevent the battery from being drained by constant calls to the network.
Global Including Labels Through Notification Settings
The most common way to activate the display of meters is to use global settings of the system, which allows you to set the behavior of tags for all installed applications at once, without going to each of them separately, this is especially convenient if you just bought a new smartphone Xiaomi Redmi or Poco and configure it from scratch.
To start, you need to go to the notification settings menu. The path can vary, but most often it looks like this: open Settings, go to the Notifications and Status bar (or just Notifications), which is the central hub for managing all alerts. In some versions of MIUI, this item can be called Notification Management.
Inside the menu, find a item called App Icons or Notification Icons. When you click on it, you'll see a switch that can be turned off by default. Activate it. Then the system will suggest you choose a display style: "Point" or "Digital." The choice of "Digits" is more informative, because it shows the exact number of unread events.
Once the global switch is turned on, tags will appear on all applications that support this feature and have unread notifications. However, if a particular app (such as Telegram or WhatsApp) does not show up with the tag, it may have individual exceptions, which we will discuss in the next section.
Individual settings for specific applications
It is often the case that the global setting is enabled, but the counter is not displayed on the WhatsApp or Viber icon, which is because MIUI prioritizes the individual settings of each application, allowing you to fine-tune the notification behavior for each software installed, giving you complete control over information noise.
To set the label for a particular application, follow the following steps:
- 📱 Go to Settings. → Annexes → All applications.
- 🔍 Find the app you want (such as Instagram) in the list and click on it.
- 🔔 Select the Notifications item.
- ✅ Find the Mark Switch on the icon (or Allow the Notification Icon) and activate it.
In the same menu, you can set up notification categories, for example, for instant messengers, you can turn on tags only for private messages, but turn them off for channels or advertising mailings if the application supports this separation, which helps keep the desktop clean, responding only to really important events.
Note that in newer versions of HyperOS, the path may be a little shorter: long-click on the app icon on the desktop → About app (the “i” icon in the circle) → Notifications. This method is faster if you want to check the settings for 2-3 applications.
☑️ Checking the application settings
If after all the manipulations, the tag does not appear, try restarting the application or the smartphone itself. Sometimes the system launcher (desktop shell) needs to be restarted to correctly display new parameters.
Launcher and desktop settings
The system application launcher is responsible for displaying icons and their behavior. In Xiaomi smartphones, it is usually System Launcher. The problems with displaying tags often lie in its settings or cache. If the standard paths do not work, you should look at the settings of the launcher itself.
To get into the launcher settings:
- Press your finger on the empty desktop space to make the editing menu appear.
- Click on the Settings button (usually the gear at the bottom of the screen).
- Look for additional or immediately labels on icons.
You can find the Show Notification Count switch here, and you can often find a style setting in this section: Classic (number in a circle) or Point (small dot in a corner), and the style choice of Point can be useful if you don't want to see numbers, but want to visually distinguish apps with new events.
| Parameter | Description | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Label style | Appearance of the indicator (digit or point) | Number for messengers, point for social networks |
| Position | Location of the tag on the icon | Standard (upper right corner) |
| Reset | Condition for the disappearance of the mark | After reading or cleaning |
| Annexes | List of programs with active tags | Only the necessary |
Some third-party launchers (Nova Launcher, Microsoft Launcher), which users install instead of the standard, can ignore the system settings of the MIUI tags. In this case, you need to look for the "Badge" or "Notification Count" settings already inside the settings of the third-party launcher and possibly install an additional plugin to support the Xiaomi protocol.
Display problems and their solution
Even with the right settings, users can experience tags disappearing, not updating, or not displaying correctly. One common reason is aggressive battery optimization. MIUI is known for its strict control of background processes, and it can "sleep" the application, which causes it to stop sending a new notification signal to the launcher.
To address this problem, it is necessary to:
- ⚡ Open the application settings and select Activity Control.
- 🚫 Set the value No restrictions.
- 🔋 Enable auto-start for this application.
Another reason is the crowded launcher cache. If the icons are "glutching" or the tags are stuck (for example, show "1", although there are no messages), try to clear the cache of the system launcher. → Annexes → All applications → Find the System Launcher (or Launcher) → Memory. → Clear the cache.
⚠️ Warning: Don't confuse "Clear Cache" with "Clean All Data." Clearing all launcher data will reset your icons and widgets on desktops to factory status.
What if the tags are missing after the update?
It is also worth checking whether Do Not Disturb or Sleep mode is enabled, which may temporarily obscure visual indicators. In some use cases (such as in games or when watching videos), the system can automatically hide the tags so as not to distract the user.
Specifics of work in different versions of Android and MIUI
The interface and availability of features can vary significantly depending on the shell version. In MIUI 12 and MIUI 13, settings were more disparate, and the user often had to dig deep into the menu. With the release of MIUI 14 and especially HyperOS (based on Android 13/14), Xiaomi began to unify the interface, making it more like stock Android, but retaining its unique chips.
On older devices that don’t get updates above Android 10 or 11, the tags may rely on older protocols, and in these cases, the stability of the app depends on optimizing the app itself, for example, older versions of Telegram may not display the counters correctly on older MIUI firmware.
Owners of Poco series devices (powered by POCO Launcher) should know that they can be set to a separate Settings app in the tool folder, rather than the general menu of the system. The logic remains the same, but the visual path is different.
💡
Use search in settings. Type the word "tag" or "badge" into the phone's settings search bar, which is the fastest way to find the right switch on any firmware version.
Global firmware (Global) versions sometimes have a reduced functionality compared to Chinese (China), but in the case of notification labels, the functionality is usually identical, the difference can only be in the terminology of the translation.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the tag not appear on some applications, even though the setting is enabled?
Can I change the color of the notification label?
Do the tags on the icons affect battery consumption?
How to remove the label without reading the message?
💡
The right setup of notification tags is a balance between awareness and cleanliness of the interface. Configure only really important applications to avoid creating visual noise.