Gesture Management on Xiaomi: How to enable, configure and fix errors

Gesture control on Xiaomi smartphones has become the de facto standard with the release of MIUI 10, but many users still do not use it fully — or do not know how to turn it on. Meanwhile, properly configured gestures save up to 30% of the time to navigate the interface, reduce the wear of physical buttons and make interaction with the phone more intuitive, especially for models with frameless screens (for example, Xiaomi 13 Ultra or Redmi Note 12 Pro+), where mechanical keys are simply absent.

In this article, we will not only show you how to activate gestures on any Xiaomi device (including budget POCO and Redmi), but also reveal the hidden features of the system, from customizing sensitivity to turning off random positives. Also, we will analyze common errors (for example, why gestures do not work after an update) and give recommendations for optimization for games and full-screen applications. If you still use classic back-home-recent buttons, after reading, you will hardly want to return to them.

1.What gestures are supported on Xiaomi in 2026

Xiaomi’s current MIUI 12-15 smartphones offer three main types of gesture navigation, each with its own pros and cons, depending on the user’s habits and device model:

• 🔄 Full-screen gestures MIUI — It uses swipes from the bottom edge of the screen for navigation (up for Home, left/right for Back, hold for Recent). MIUI 10+.
• ⬅️ Android gestures (AOSP) — An alternative style, similar to "pure" Android. Swipe up and hold opens the app menu, and diagonal swipes replace the "back" button. MIUI 12.5.
• 📱 Gestures for button devices – hybrid mode, where swipes are combined with virtual buttons. Relevant for older models (for example, Redmi 8 or Mi). A3).

It’s important to understand that not all gestures are equally useful, for example, swiping up to return to the home screen can conflict with gestures in some games (such as Genshin Impact or PUBG Mobile), and diagonal swipes for the back button often trigger accidentally when reading books or scrolling through social media.

2. Step-by-step instruction: how to turn on gestures on Xiaomi

Activation of gesture navigation takes less than a minute, but the path to settings may vary depending on the version of MIUI. Below is a universal instruction, suitable for Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO based on MIUI 12-15:

1. Open the settings (cog icon on the desktop).
2. Go to the Display section (on some models – Screen).
3. Select Full-screen display or Navigation buttons (depending on the firmware version).
4. Click on the Navigation Type or Navigation Style.
5. Choose one of the options: 🔄 Full-screen gestures (recommended for new models) ⬅️ Android Gestures (for fans of a clean interface) 📱 Buttons with gestures (hybrid mode)

Confirm the choice and wait for the application of settings (the phone can briefly “suppress”).

If you turn on the gestures, the screen starts to scroll arbitrarily or the buttons don't respond, it's probably a shell conflict problem.

⚠️ Note: On some models (POCO F3, Redmi K50) If you change the navigation type, you need to restart. If the gestures don't work, hold the power button and select Reboot.

3. Hidden gesture settings: what can be customized additionally

Most users are limited to basic gesture activation, but MIUI hides a number of useful options that make navigation even easier, hidden in the menu Additional settings or Special features:

• 🎯 Swipe sensitivity: regulates how hard you have to swipe to make a gesture work. Useful for owners of high-sided cases. → Display. → Full-screen display → Sensitivity of gestures.
• 🔒 Random gesture blocking: Disables the activation when you touch the edges of the screen (relevant to games). → Management convenience → Prevent accidental touching.
• ⚡ Quick switch between applications: swipe on the bottom panel left / right without delay. → System system → Gestures → Quick switching.
• 📲 Horizontal gestures: adjusts swipe behavior when you turn the screen (for example, in YouTube or Google Maps). → Display. → Crash-turn → Gesture settings.

The Smart Gesture Recognition feature (available on flagships like Xiaomi 14 or Mix Fold 3) analyzes contextual usage and automatically adjusts sensitivity, such as in games, gestures are turned off, and in instant messengers, they become more responsive, to activate it:

Settings → Special features → Smart functions → Smart gesture recognition

💡

After the update MIUI And gestures are getting worse -- reset them to the standard settings. → Annexes → Application management → Settings (three points) → Reset the settings and select Gesture settings.

4.Why gestures don't work on Xiaomi: Typical problems and solutions

Even when properly set up, gestures can fail or fail, and 80 percent of the time, it's not hardware defects that are to blame, but software conflicts, and the most common causes and ways to fix them are:

A special case is that gestures stop working after the MIUI update, because newer versions of the firmware can reset navigation settings to restore functionality:

1. Go to Settings → About Phone → MIUI version and check the relevance of the firmware.
2. If the update was recent, reset your gesture settings (see tip above).
3. If the problem persists, roll back to the previous version of MIUI via Settings → System Update → Three Points → Select an update pack.

⚠️ Note: On some models (POCO X3 Pro, Redmi Note 10) after resetting gesture settings may need to reboot in Safe Mode (hold the power button → Reboot in Safe Mode. This will remove conflicting background processes.

5.Gestural optimization for games and full-screen applications

Gamers and active users of social networks often find that gestures interfere with gameplay or scrolling tape. For example, in Call of Duty: Mobile, swipe up can accidentally turn the game back to the main screen, and in TikTok, it is solved by setting Game Mode and Exceptions for gestures:

• 🎮 Disable gestures in games: Open Settings → Special facilities → Game mode. Select Disable gestures in games. Add the desired applications to the exclusion list.

Set-up of exclusion zones

In Settings → Display → Full-screen Display → Exclusion Zones can be specified areas of the screen where gestures are ignored (for example, the bottom 5 mm for swipes in PUBG).

Use of alternative gestures

Some firmware (e.g. Xiaomi.EU) offers custom gestures where you can assign swipes diagonally or double touches for navigation.

For flagship owners (Xiaomi 13T, Mix Fold 2), there is another useful feature: the separation of gestures by application, for example, in messengers you can leave standard swipes, and in the browser you can turn them off altogether, to configure this:

Settings → Applications → Application Management → [Select App] → Permissions → Gestures

6.Gesturals on old Xiaomi models: features and limitations

If you have a device older than 2020 (such as the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Mi 9 or POCO F1), full-screen gestures may not be available or work in a stable way, due to hardware limitations and outdated versions of MIUI.

• 🔄 Update your firmware to the latest available version: Even if the official updates have stopped, you can install custom firmware (such as Xiaomi.EU or Pixel Experience) where gesture support is better implemented.
• ⚙️ Use hybrid mode: On older models, full-screen gestures are often glitched, so the best option is gesture buttons (virtual buttons). + swipe).
• 🛠️ Install a third-party launcher: Apps like Nova Launcher or Microsoft Launcher offer custom gestures that can work more stable than system ones.

For devices running MIUI 9-11 (e.g. Redmi 6, Mi A2), full-screen gestures cannot be enabled — the most that is available is button gestures.

Settings → Display → Navigation buttons → gestures for buttons

⚠️ Note: On Xiaomi Mi A-series (with pure Android) gestures MIUI It's not available at all. It only works with standard Android gestures, which are included in Settings. → System system → Gestures → System navigation.

7. Alternative control: when gestures are not enough

If standard gestures don’t suit you (for example, due to physical limitations or specific tasks), Xiaomi offers several alternative ways to navigate:

• 👆 Voice control: Voice assistant XiaoAI allows you to open apps, return to the home screen, and even scroll through pages with voice commands. → Special facilities → Voice control.
• 🖱️ Mouse control: When you connect a wireless mouse (such as the Xiaomi Mi Bluetooth Mouse), you can use a cursor to navigate. Useful for presentations or computer work.
• 🤏 Gestures in the air: Some flagships (for example, Xiaomi 13 Ultra) support gestures without touching the screen – just swipe your hand above the top of the display. → Display. → Gestures in the air.
• ⌨️ Keyboard shortenings: When connecting a physical keyboard (via OTG or Bluetooth) you can assign hotkeys to navigate. → Connected devices → keyboard.