Modern Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones are no longer just callers, becoming complex multimedia centers that require precise customization for a particular user. Many owners, accidentally or specifically opening the settings section, ask puzzled: Xiaomi special features menu what it is and does it need an ordinary person? The answer lies in the depth of the philosophy of MIUI and HyperOS, where the availability of the interface is at the forefront for people with disabilities, but also offers convenient tools for everyone.
It’s essentially a centralized hub that combines screen adaptation, sound management, and physical navigation. If you’ve ever had difficulty reading fine text in the bright sun, or wanted to control your phone without touching the screen, you’ve already seen the need for these tools. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what hidden reserves this section hides and how to turn your Xiaomi into a more convenient gadget.
It's important to understand that activating certain features can dramatically change the interface, so be mindful of the experiment. We'll look at not only basic settings for the visually impaired, but also advanced use cases that even experienced users of the Android ecosystem will appreciate.
The main purpose and philosophy of accessibility in MIUI
The special features section is designed with the sole purpose of creating barriers between humans and the digital world. In the MIUI and the new HyperOS, the company's engineers have implemented Google Accessibility standards, but added their unique gesture and voice command algorithms, not just a set of "crutches" for people with disabilities, but a full-fledged system for adapting the interface to the physical characteristics of the operator.
Many functions work in the background to analyze your actions, such as recognizing repetitive click patterns and offering simplified ways to complete tasks, especially for models with large screen diagonals, where reaching the top corner with your thumb becomes a physical problem.
⚠️ Warning: Activating TalkBack completely changes the logic of smartphone management. A normal touch stops opening apps and starts to voice their names. If you have turned on this feature by accident and don’t know how to exit, quickly tap three times on the screen or use a combination of volume buttons.
It is worth noting that the correct use of these tools can significantly extend the life of the display (by reducing brightness and using dark themes) and reduce the load on the eyes. In the conditions of constant information noise, the ability to adjust the vibration and sound signals becomes not a luxury, but a necessity for maintaining mental health.
Visual adaptation: fonts, colors and magnification
The first thing that catches your eye when you enter the menu is the visuals section, and here are tools for people with low vision, but they're also useful for older users or those who prefer a minimalist interface, and the key element is a magnifying device that works like a magnifier for any part of the screen.
You can adjust the magnification factor and the scope, so you can read small text in contracts or look at details in photos without having to take screenshots and zoom in the gallery, and you can control it through a triple touch of the screen or a special floating button.
And there's also a color inversion and color blindness correction setting, and if you notice that Xiaomi's standard color rendering seems faded or too saturated, high contrast modes can help you find balance, which is especially important for people with deuteranopia or protanopia (a form of color blindness) who have difficulty distinguishing certain shades.
- 👁️ Magnifying: allows you to instantly scale any part of the screen with customizable zoom.
- 🎨 Color inversion: Changes color scheme to negative, which reduces the strain on the eyes in the dark.
- 📏 Text Size: Globally changing fonts in all supported applications.
- 🌑 Dark theme: Forced black backgrounds to be turned on even in apps that don't support it natively.
The Remote Management feature, which allows trusted or support people to see your device screen and help with configuration, is a powerful remote help tool that works through your Mi Account.
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To quickly turn on the magnifier, set it to start by double pressing the power button in the menu "Special Opportunity Shortcuts". This will save time when you need to urgently read small text.
Audio assistants and voice management
Audio is the second pillars of accessibility. TalkBack is the standard for blind users, voiced all actions on the screen. However, Xiaomi has more subtle tools in its arsenal, such as selecting a sound profile and adjusting balance.
Voice control allows you to execute commands without touching the screen. Unlike the standard Google Assistant, special-purpose system commands have deeper access to interface settings. You can dictate text, open apps, and even scroll through pages with a glance (on supported models).
An important aspect is the setting of mono-sound, which is that if a user has hearing problems in one ear, this feature mixes the stereo channels into one so that no audio information is lost, not only in terms of calls, but also in terms of media content playback.
There's also a "Hear Notifications" feature that duplicates important system messages with a specific frequency of sound, which helps people with hearing impairments keep their calls or alarm clocks from missing, relying on vibrations and visual cues.
| Function | Appointment | Impact on the battery |
|---|---|---|
| TalkBack | Interface voiceover | High. |
| Choices through voice | Handless management | Average. |
| Mono-sound | Channel integration | Low. |
| Sound amplification | Maximum volume | Average. |
Secret Audio Output Customization
Physical interaction and gesture management
Not all users can or want to use a touch screen. The feature menu offers alternative input methods that make Xiaomi’s smartphone a versatile tool, most notably a switch (Switch Access), which allows you to control the interface using external buttons or even blinking (on devices with a front-facing camera of the appropriate type).
Eye control is becoming more popular, and it reads eye movement and emulates touch where you hold your eye, and it requires calibration and good lighting, but it works remarkably accurately on flagship models.
For people with hand tremors or limited motor skills, you can adjust touch sensitivity and retention time, you can increase the time it takes to recognize long presses to avoid random menus, and you can also block side buttons from unwanted presses.
- 🖱️ Switch: Managing one or more external buttons.
- 👀 Eye control: navigation with eye movement (requires hardware support).
- ✋ One-hand gestures: shifts the interface downwards for easy thumb access.
- 🚫 Touch Blocking: Prevents accidental tapping in your pocket or when carried in your bag.
⚠️ Attention: Using gaze control and constantly questioning the camera can significantly increase battery consumption.
And the virtual controller, which displays a joystick and buttons, emulating a gamepad, is useful not only for gaming, but also for people who have difficulty performing accurate multi-touch gestures on a glass surface.
☑️ Control settings for people with limited motor skills
Labels and automation of special capabilities
So, to avoid digging into deep menus every time, the system suggests creating shortcuts, so you can assign a specific function (like a magnifier or color inversion) to run by pressing the volume button or the power button for a long time, which makes the smartphone a quick adaptation tool.
Newer versions of HyperOS have the ability to create scripts, such as automatically turning on mono sound when you connect your headphones, or increasing contrast when you start navigation, a level of automation that was previously only available through third-party apps.
There's also a quick-access menu called a swipe, and you can only take out 3-4 features that you actually use a lot, and it doesn't make sense to clutter up the list, because it slows down the search for the right option in a stressful situation.
Developers and advanced users can access feature logs, and adb can track what events accessibility service intercepts an active application, which helps to understand why some programs may conflict with system settings.
adb shell dumpsys accessibilityThis team will provide a detailed report on the status of all the accessibility services that are running, and log analysis helps identify the "heavy" services that can slow down the interface.
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Competent shortcuts reduce the time to access the desired functions from 30 seconds to 1 second, which is critical in emergency situations.
Impact on data performance and security
Activation of multiple accessibility services does not go unnoticed by the system: each module running consumes RAM and CPU time. On low-end models of Redmi or Poco with low RAM, this can lead to noticeable interface slowdowns.
From a security perspective, special services have the highest privileges of being able to "see" everything that happens on the screen, including passwords and bank details, so it is strongly discouraged to install third-party applications from unknown sources that require access to Accessibility.
Xiaomi’s system features are tested for security, but if you install a third-party gesture control program, make sure it’s reliable. Attackers often use this legitimate mechanism to intercept data (called an overlay attack).
- 🔋 Battery consumption: Active services can increase energy consumption 10-15%.
- 🛡️ Security: Services have access to all screen content.
- ⚡ Productivity: Possible decline FPS in games with heavy modules included.
- 📉 Memory: Background processes occupy RAM.
⚠️ Warning: If your phone starts to behave strangely after installing a new app (spontaneous clicks, opening ad windows), immediately check the list of special features permissions and disable suspicious services.
Check the active services list regularly, and if you stop using the zoom or voice control feature, you better turn it off, which will free up the system for basic tasks and improve the autonomy of the device.