Why Xiaomi doesn’t have a floating window feature: The Complete Guide

Many users are faced with a situation where the usual multitasking function ceases to respond to commands. If your Xiaomi does not have floating windows, this does not necessarily mean that your smartphone breaks. Most often, the problem lies in software conflicts or specific configurations of the MIUI and HyperOS shell. The system can block the launch due to a lack of RAM or restrictions imposed on a particular application.

The window mode feature allows multiple programs to run simultaneously, which greatly improves productivity. However, when this option stops working, the user loses access to convenient task management. In this article, we will discuss in detail the technical causes of failures and offer proven methods for eliminating them to return your device to full functionality.

Hardware limitations and lack of RAM

The first and most common reason for a system to fail to start floating windows is a trivial lack of resources. RAM is your CPU’s desktop, and if it’s crowded, new processes simply can’t start, especially for low-end models in the Redmi or Poco series, where free memory can be critically small once the system is booted.

When you try to activate multitasking mode, the system analyzes the available amount of RAM. If there are not enough available resources to render the second interface, the shell forcibly blocks the action. This is a protective mechanism that prevents the entire device from freezing. Heavy games or augmented reality applications consume the lion's share of resources, leaving a minimum for background tasks.

⚠️ Warning: Attempting to force a floating window to start at critically low memory can lead to a complete freeze of the interface and the need to reboot the device with power buttons.

To diagnose the current state of memory, you can use built-in tools or third-party utilities. It is worth remembering that the gigabytes declared by the manufacturer are not always available to the user in full due to reserved system processes. The minimum requirement for stable window operation is the availability of 1.5-2 GB of free RAM at the time of launch.

There are several indications that the problem lies in the scarcity of resources:

• 📉 The device begins to slow down immediately after trying to open the second window.
• 🔄 Background applications are constantly unloaded from memory and restarted.
• 🚫 The system automatically closes the active application when you try to activate multitasking.
• 🔥 The smartphone body is very hot even when performing simple tasks.

The solution here is to clear the memory before you start heavy tasks, close all unnecessary applications through Task Manager and try again. If the problem persists, it may make sense to consider installing a lighter version of the applications or avoiding some visual effects in the settings.

Conflicts between the MIUI software and version

The MIUI shell and the new HyperOS have a complex architecture that periodically encounters software errors. It often happens that after a system update, the floating window function stops working correctly, this may be due to changes in the code of the system component of com.miui.mihome or a version conflict between the system libraries and installed applications.

Instability can be seen in beta versions of firmware, where developers are testing new features. In such cases, a window mode bug is a known problem that is fixed in subsequent patches. Also, the Android version on which the shell is built is affected: old applications may behave incorrectly on new versions of the android.

To eliminate program conflicts, it is recommended to perform the following actions:

• 🛠 Check for system updates in the Settings menu → The phone.
• 🗑 Clear the cache of system services responsible for multitasking.
• 📵 Remove newly installed applications that may conflict with the system.

It is important to note that some versions of MIUI have different names for the same feature. Where it was previously called "floating windows", in new versions it may be called "window mode" or "extended windows". The confusion in terminology often leads users to believe that the feature is missing or not working, although it is simply moved to another settings section.

Permission settings for specific applications

Modern versions of Android and Xiaomi shell require explicit permission from the user to work in multitasking mode. If a specific application does not have a window support flag, the system will block its launch as a floating window. This is done for security and stability reasons, since not all programs are adapted to work in a small window.

To check and change these settings, you need to go to a special section for developers or to the parameters of a particular application. In some cases, you need to activate the hidden function "Forced Windows Mode." Without this step, many popular messengers or browsers will simply turn on the full screen, ignoring your attempts to fold them.

The process of setting up the permission is as follows:

1. Open Settings and find the App item.
2. Select the desired application from the list or find it through search.
3. Go to the Additional (or Additional Settings) section.
4. Find the Start in window mode and activate it.

⚠️ Warning: Forced windowing for system applications or drivers can cause unstable interface operation and the appearance of artifacts on the screen.

It's worth noting that even after permission is enabled, the app can behave incorrectly. Some programs, especially horizontal games, don't have an adaptive interface for a vertical small window, in which case the image may be cropped or controls become unavailable, which is a limitation of the app itself, not Xiaomi's system.

Failures in system services and cache

Accumulation of temporary files and errors in the work of system services is another common reason why floating windows on Xiaomi stop working.The service responsible for rendering windows and managing multitasking can over time become “caught” with erroneous data, which leads to the fact that the command to open the second window is simply ignored by the processor.

To solve this problem, you don't have to completely reset your device, you just have to clean up the system components that are responsible for the interface, and it's a safe procedure that doesn't delete your personal photos or contacts, but returns the system settings to factory settings.

Below is a table of components that most often require cleaning for similar problems:

Once the selected components are cleaned, the device must be restarted. Only after the full cycle of on and off will the changes take effect and the system services start from scratch. If the problem was a software failure, the floating window function should work correctly.

Features of work in the mode of the developer

For advanced users who haven't found a solution in standard settings, there's developer mode available. This hidden menu contains the depth of animation and window management. This is where you find the Force activities to be resizable switch, which causes the system to run windows even for applications that don't officially support it.

To get into the developer menu, you need to click on the build number several times in the About section. Once the corresponding notification appears, a new item will appear in the main settings. Be careful: changing the settings in this section can affect the stability of the entire smartphone.

Key settings for activating window mode:

• 🔍 Minimum width: change of this parameter (DPI) It can help to start the tablet mode on the phone.
• 🖼 Forced window mode: allows you to run any applications in a floating window.
• 📱 Enable free transformation: Adds the ability to change the size of windows arbitrarily.

⚠️ Note: Change of the parameter "Minimum width" (DPI) It can make the font unreadable. Remember the original value before you make changes to get it back to normal.

Using these features makes your smartphone look like a desktop operating system, but it's worth remembering that not all apps are optimized for this mode of operation, buttons can get too small, and text can get bumped into each other, and that's the price of advanced functionality on devices where it wasn't originally planned by the app manufacturer.

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If the interface becomes too small after the developer mode is turned on, go to the screen settings and select the Classic element size, or reset the developer settings completely.

Third-party applications and alternative launchers

If Xiaomi's built-in tools don't meet your needs or don't work properly, you can always turn to third-party solutions. There are specialized applications that implement floating window functionality on top of the main system. They often work more stable than MIUI system crutches and have more flexible settings.

Popular programs like Floating Apps or XMultiWindows create their own window layer, which is independent of the system constraints of the shell, because it emulates the runtime within itself, and allows you to run multiple copies of the same application at the same time, which is often impossible with standard Xiaomi tools.

However, this approach has its drawbacks:

1. Increased battery consumption due to the operation of the extra layer.
2. The need to provide broad permissions to display over other windows.
3. Possible conflicts with navigation gestures of the system.

Installing a third-party launcher can also solve the problem if the standard Xiaomi desktop is malfunctioning. Launchers like Nova Launcher or Microsoft Launcher have their own window controls that can work regardless of MIUI system errors. But it is worth considering that replacing the launcher changes the entire visual style of the device.

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Using specialized multi-window applications is the best solution if the built-in MIUI function is unstable or limited by the manufacturer.