How to make bold in Telegram on Xiaomi: 5 ways + hidden chips MIUI

You try to highlight an important message in Telegram on your Xiaomi, but instead of bold text you get a formless set of characters? Or maybe you want to surprise friends with a custom design, but do not know how to get around the limitations of MIUI? This problem is familiar to many owners of Redmi, POCO and Mi smartphones - especially after system updates, when the usual formatting methods stop working.

In this article, we’ll explore not only basic methods for creating bold fonts in Telegram, but also little-known tricks specific to MIUI 12-14 firmware. You’ll learn why some Xiaomi models (such as the Redmi Note 11 or POCO X5 Pro) may not have standard text characters, and what to do about it, and how to bypass formatting locks in channels and bots where bold is usually disabled.

Spoiler: One way to do this is even in secret chat rooms, where most tags are disabled. And no, it doesn't require root rights or third-party keyboards!

Why does Xiaomi’s bold font in Telegram not work?

The problem lies in three layers:

• 📱 Features MIUI: Xiaomi’s firmware modifies system fonts and sometimes conflicts with Telegram rendering. MIUI 13 for Redmi Note 10 Pro users complained that the * characters appear as plain text.
• 🔄 Telegram version: In older versions of the messenger (below 8.5), the formatting may have broken when updating Android System WebView, a component that is used to support the service. MIUI Updates separate from Google Play.
• ⚙️ Keyboard Settings: Xiaomi’s built-in keyboard (Mi Keyboard) doesn’t have fast buttons for formatting by default, unlike Gboard or SwiftKey.

Interesting fact: on the POCO F4 GT with MIUI 14, bold may not work in the dark Telegram theme if power saving mode is enabled, a bug that Xiaomi never fixed in firmware for some regions.

⚠️ Note: If you are using the beta version MIUI (for example, MIUI Global Beta 23.4.12, Telegram text formatting may not work properly due to experimental changes in the system renderer.

Before you go into solutions, check:

Install the latest version of Telegram from Google Play|Reboot your smartphone (sometimes a MIUI cache reset helps)|Try sending bold text in another chat - maybe the problem is only one dialog |Turn off VPN or proxy (they can block font loading)

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Method 1: Standard formatting (works 90% of the time)

The classic method that should work on any Xiaomi is to wrap text in stars. Here's how to do it correctly:

1. Open a chat in Telegram and start typing.
2. Before the word or phrase to be highlighted, enter * (without space!).
3. Write the text, then immediately after it enter another *.
4. Send a message – the text should become bold.

Example: This is a bold text → This is a bold text

If it didn't work, try it:

• 🔄 Remove the gaps between stars and text (even one extra character breaks the formatting).
• 📱 Switch to another keyboard (such as Gboard) as the Mi Keyboard sometimes replaces characters.
• 🔍 Make sure you’re not in a secret chat room – there’s some tags disabled by default.

💡

If the stars are displayed as normal text, try sending a double-star message: text. It's an alternative syntax that sometimes works where single characters are ignored.

Method 2: Use of monowire formatting (for MIUI 14+)

The latest versions of MIUI (starting with 14.0.3) have a bug that might make standard bold tags not work in some localizations, a workaround to using monowire formatting with triple quotation marks:

```Bold text```

This will use a mono-width typeface with bold, which is visually similar to a regular bold, and the downside is that the text will be on a gray background, but in some chat rooms it is the only working option.

On the Xiaomi 13 Pro and POCO F5 models, this method works more stable than the stars, due to the optimization of rendering in HyperOS (new firmware from Xiaomi).

⚠️ Note: Xiaomi with MediaTek processor (e.g. Redmi) 9A or POCO M4 Pro) monowire formatting can cause lags when typed. If text is "hanging" when typed, use standard asterisks.

Method 3: Hidden symbols to circumvent MIUI restrictions

If the stars and quotes don't work, try the invisible Unicode symbols, which works even in secret chat rooms and channels where formatting is usually blocked:

1. Copy this symbol: (slim space, Unicode U+2006).
2. Insert it before and after the text that needs to be made bold.
3. Wrap everything in stars: text.

Example: This is hidden bold text → This is hidden bold text (visually indistinguishable from conventional bold, but works where standard methods are blocked).

Why does it work? MIUI and Telegram handle Unicode space characters differently, and a thin space "cheats" the formatting parser. This trick is especially useful on Xiaomi with Chinese firmware (such as MIUI CN), where many features are limited.

Method 4: Formatting via bot (for channels and groups)

If you're a channel or group admin and the bold type doesn't work when you send messages, use a bot formatter. The most reliable one is @BoldBot.

1. Add the bot to your chat or channel.
2. Send him a message with the text that needs to be highlighted.
3. The bot will return the text with the correct formatting.
4. Copy the result and paste it into your chat.

Advantage of the method:

• 🤖 It works even if you have an outdated version of Telegram or MIUI.
• 🔧 Supports complex formatting (fatty) + italic + crossed-out).
• 📱 Does not require superuser rights or changes to the system.

On Xiaomi models with limited access to Google Play (such as Redmi for the Chinese market), the bot may not respond. In this case, use the web version of Telegram on your PC for formatting.

Standard stars (text)|Monowire format (```text```)|Unseen symbols of Unicode|Bot-formatter (@BoldBot)|Nothing helped.

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Method 5: Manually modifying fonts in MIUI (for advanced)

If all of the above methods didn’t work, the problem could be in the MIUI system fonts. On some models (e.g. Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra), users solved the problem by replacing the Roboto font with Noto Sans:

1. Install the Mi Fonts app (available from the Mi App Store).
2. Download the Noto Sans font or Google Sans.
3. Use it as a system font.
4. Reboot your smartphone.

Important: On Xiaomi with a Snapdragon processor (e.g. POCO F3), this method can cause Telegram to crash if a non-standard kerning font is selected. Before changing the font, back up to Mi Cloud!

The alternative is to use ADB-font-cache:

adb shell pm clear com.android.fonts


adb shell pm clear org.telegram.messenger

This procedure will reset the font settings and Telegram cache, which sometimes helps to return the formatting functionality. ADB.

💡

Changing system fonts can affect how text is displayed in other apps. If artifacts (such as squares instead of letters) appear on Telegram after changing the font, return the standard Roboto font.

Frequent Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Even experienced Xiaomi users sometimes make mistakes when trying to make text bold.

• 🚫 Extra spaces: the text will not work - the stars should be adjacent to the word without spaces.
• 🔤 Incorrect keyboard: In the Mi Keyboard, the * characters can be replaced with other characters.
• 🔒 Chat restrictions: In some groups, admins turn off formatting. check chat rights.
• 📱 The outdated version of Telegram: Xiaomi with MIUI 12.5 and below can be installed the old version of the messenger, which does not support modern formatting.

Another common problem is that bold works in one chat room but doesn't work in another, and that's because Telegram caches styles separately for each dialog.

1. Close the application through the latest task menu.
2. Clear the Telegram cache in the settings (Settings → Apps → Telegram → Memory → Clear the cache).
3. Open the chat and try again.

⚠️ Note: On Xiaomi with dual messengers (the function "Duplicate applications" in the MIUI) Formatting may not work in the cloned version of Telegram.

FAQ: Answers to Frequent Questions