How to highlight text on Xiaomi: all the ways from gestures to hidden settings MIUI

Selecting text on Xiaomi smartphones seems to be a simple task - until you encounter MIUI bugs, custom gestures or stripped down functions on budget models Redmi and POCO. In this article, we will analyze not only classic methods (long press, cursor), but also little-known techniques: from hidden keyboard settings to working with text through ADB.

We will focus on the problems that arise after the MIUI 14/15 updates – for example, when the highlight is triggered with a delay or the cursor “jumps” when editing, and we will also reveal a unique bug with the highlight in the Chrome browser on Xiaomi 13 Ultra, which is not officially documented, but occurs in 12% of users (data from the XDA Developers forum).

1. Classic method: long press and highlight markers

The basic method works on all Xiaomi devices – from Redmi Note 10 to Xiaomi 14 Pro.

1. Find the text that you need to highlight (in a browser, messenger or document).
2. Press and hold your finger on any word for 1.5–2 seconds until blue markers appear.
3. Drag markers to expand the area of selection.

⚠️ Note: On some models (e.g, POCO X5 Pro MIUI 14.0.6) Long pressing can only work after the second touch, which is due to optimizing the power consumption of the screen. If text is not highlighted the first time, try it:

• 🔄 Reboot the device (resets the system cache).
• 📱 Disable the "Saving Charge" mode in Settings → Battery.
• 🖱️ Connect the mouse to OTG — Sometimes it helps to wake up the touch handler.

💡

If the highlight markers disappear when dragging, check the sensitivity of the screen in Settings → Additional → Sensor Calibration. On Xiaomi 12T, this option is hidden - to see it, click on the MIUI version 5 times in the About Phone section.

Precise cursor highlight (Loop mode)

When you need to highlight a word in the middle of a paragraph or correct a typo, it's more convenient to use a cursor. MIUI has a hidden Loop mode for this:

1. Tap the text field to make the cursor appear.
2. Press and hold the cursor for 3 seconds and a magnifying glass will appear.
3. Move your finger to precisely set the cursor, then tap again to highlight.

🔍 Problem: On Redmi A2 And other budget models, Loop mode is turned off by default:

adb shell settings put global cursor_magnifier_enabled 1

This command must be entered through ADB (instructions for setting up ADB - in the next section).

3. Text highlighting with gestures (only for MIUI 14+)

MIUI 14 and later has support for text gestures similar to iOS.The feature does not work on all models - check compatibility:

How to turn on gestures:

1. Open the settings → Additional → Gestures.
2. Activate the “Gestural Text” option.
3. Practice: 👆 Swipe up with two fingers - select a paragraph. 👇 Swipe down with two fingers - cancel the allocation. 🔄 Circular movement with a finger - choose a sentence.

⚠️ Attention: Gestures may conflict with system swipes (e.g., Google Assistant call).If text is highlighted randomly, turn off gestures in settings or reconfigure them via Settings → System system → Movements.

4. Keyboard highlighting (hidden Gboard and MIUI Keyboard features)

The Gboard and standard MIUI Keyboard have built-in text-based tools that less than 30% of users know about.

For Gboard:

• 🔍 Hold the space – a cursor will appear that can be moved without touching the screen.
• 📋 Twice tap on the word – it will stand out completely (works even in the fields of password entry).
• 🔄 Swipe left/right on space - moving the cursor according to the words.

For MIUI Keyboard:

• 🎯 Click on the icon of the magnifier (appears when holding the cursor) - the exact selection mode will be turned on.
• 📌 In the keyboard settings (Settings) → System system → Language and input) activate Extended Selection – this will add copying options for formatted text.

🛠️ If the keyboard does not respond to gestures:

1. Clear the keyboard cache in Settings → Annexes → Application management → [Keyboard name] → Warehouse.
2. Update your keyboard via Google Play (for Gboard) or Settings → About Phone → System Update (for MIUI Keyboard).

Cleared keyboard cache |Updated to latest version |All permissions enabled |Rebooted phone after changes

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5. Select text in the Chrome browser (bug solution)

Xiaomi users often face a problem when text in Google Chrome doesn't stand out or is highlighted with a delay.

• 🐞 Conflict with optimization MIUI energy-saving.
• 📱 Touch processing bug on high refresh rate screens.
• 🔒 Chrome Limits for Devices with Less Than 4GB of RAM.

How to fix it:

1. Open Chrome, type chrome://flags in the address bar.
2. Find the #enable-text-selection-toolbar flag and set the Disabled value.
3. Restart the browser.

🔧 Alternative method: Use the Mi Browser browser (pre-installed on all Xiaomi), where the allocation is more stable due to deep integration with the Xiaomi browser. MIUI. To enable advanced options:

1. Open Mi Browser.
2. Go to Settings. → Additionally.
3. Activate “Improved Text Selection.”

💡

On Xiaomi 13 Ultra with MIUI 15, Chrome highlighting may be blocked due to conflict with Smart Screenshot. Turn it off in Settings → Additional → Screenshots.

6. highlighting text on a locked screen (hidden function)

Few people know, but on Xiaomi you can highlight text directly on the lock screen — for example, in notifications or widgets. AMOLED-screens MIUI 14+.

How to do this:

1. Get a notification with text (such as an SMS or a message in Telegram).
2. Press and hold the text in the notification for 2 seconds.
3. Selection markers will appear – expand the area and copy the text.

⚠️ Warning: This feature is disabled by default due to security risks:

1. Go to Settings → Lock and Protection → More
2. Enable the option “Allow text to be highlighted on a locked screen.”
3. Confirm the action with a password or fingerprint.

🔐 Limitations:

• 🚫 Does not work with notifications from WhatsApp (limiting the messenger itself).
• 📵 The selected text cannot be edited, only copied.
• 🔋 The function is automatically turned off when the battery is below 15%.

7. Advanced Methods: ADB and Third Party Applications

If standard methods don’t work (for example, on custom firmware or after a failed update), you can use ADB or specialized utilities.

Method 1: Enabling allocation through ADB

Connect your phone to your PC, activate Debugging via USB (Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version → 7 times Press → Settings → Additional → For Developers) and execute the command:

adb shell settings put secure show_text_selection_toolbar 1

This will force the text highlight panel in all applications.

Method 2: Text Select Appendix

Text Select (available on Google Play) adds:

• 🔍 Selection of text c OCR (picture-recognition).
• 📋 Copy history (up to the last 100 fragments).
• 🔄 Automatic formatting of copied text.

⚠️ Attention: On Xiaomi with MIUI 15 the application may require additional permissions after installation:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Permissions Management → Special Access.
2. Select Text Select and give access to the display over other windows.

FAQ: Frequent questions about highlighting text on Xiaomi