How to keep contact in your Xiaomi phone

The modern smartphone has long ceased to be just a means of communication, turning into a digital book of life, where hundreds of important numbers are stored. For owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices, the issue of data security is especially acute, given the variety of shells MIUI and HyperOS. An error in choosing a storage location can lead to loss of numbers when changing devices or resetting settings.

In this article, we will discuss in detail how to record numbers, how to avoid duplication and what hidden features the standard Contacts app offers, and you will learn to manage your phone book professionally using all the features of the Android system.

The process of adding a record seems trivial, but there are nuances in the Xiaomi ecosystem: System priority is given to the Google account, which ensures automatic synchronization without unnecessary user actions.

Choosing the Best Place to Storage Data

The first and most important step is to determine where exactly the new number will be written. Unlike older button phones, where everything was stored on a SIM card, modern smartphones offer several levels of save. The standard MIUI shell contact app immediately requests account selection when creating a new record.

If you choose storage on SIM-The limit of characters for a name is often limited, and saving additional fields, such as an email, address or second phone number, becomes impossible. In addition, the speed of working with the SIM card memory is much lower, which can slow down the search with a large number of records.

The most reliable option is a Google account, which provides instant sync with all devices that log in to your profile, and even if your phone is lost or broken, it takes a couple of minutes to recover the numbers after you log in to the new gadget.

• 📱 Phone Memory: Local storage, data is only available on this device, risk of loss when reset.
• ☁️ Google Account: Cloud Storage, Full Sync, Recovery of Change History.
• 💾 SIM-map: outdated method, limited number of characters, no additional fields.
• 🌐 Mi Account: Xiaomi’s proprietary cloud, convenient for users of the brand ecosystem, but less universal.

⚠️ Note: When choosing storage for SIM-Make sure your contacts are not cropped, and often long names and surnames may not be displayed correctly on other devices.

It's a good idea to keep your Google account active as your primary account, which is not only convenient, it's also safe. If your smartphone breaks, you just type in your login and password on any other Android device, and the entire phone book will be restored automatically.

Step-by-step instructions for adding a new number

The process of creating a new record in the Xiaomi interface is intuitive, but has several important features. To add a contact, open the standard Phone or Contacts app and click on the + icon or the Make Contact button, which is usually located in the lower right corner of the screen or at the top of the list.

Once you open the form, the system will suggest you choose a place to save, and as we discussed, you should choose a Google account, then enter your name and phone number, and the MIUI interface allows you to immediately add a photo, which will help you identify the subscriber more quickly when you call.

To expand functionality, click on the "More" or "Add field" button, where you can specify your job title, company, email address, physical address, and even call audible design for a particular caller, which is especially useful for separating work and personal calls.

If you communicate frequently with a person via video, you can add a link to your profile in the messengers in the contact field, although direct integration depends on the installed applications. Android automatically recognizes the numbers and offers actions: call, write an SMS or launch a video call.

Working with groups and contact labels

Managing a large list of numbers becomes chaotic without proper systematization. HyperOS shell and earlier versions of MIUI support group work, allowing you to quickly send mass messages or customize individual sound profiles for entire categories of people.

You can create a group from the contact management menu, you can call it Work, Family, Gym or Customers, and once you create a group, you can add existing contacts or create new ones right inside the category, which makes it easier to navigate when you need to quickly find a specific person's number.

Special attention should be paid to the feature "Favorites" Contacts added to this category are displayed on a separate tab and often take priority when displaying lock screen or in the widgets of the desktop, which ensures that you will always see calls from the most important people.

• 🏢 Worker: Set up a quiet profile or vibration for this group to avoid missing a boss call.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family: Set a loud and long beep, as well as a priority call (works even in Do Not Disturb mode»).
• 🎉 Friends: you can assign a fun tune to lift the mood.

⚠️ Note: When you delete a group, contacts are not deleted from the general phone book, they only lose their category, but remain searchable.

Using groups also helps with synchronization with other services, such as when exporting to Gmail, groups are stored as “Tags”, which allows you to conveniently filter emails and calendar events associated with these people.

Import and export of telephone book

Situations where you need to transfer contacts from one phone to another occur regularly, Xiaomi devices this process is as automated as possible, when you first turn on a new smartphone, the system will suggest importing data from your Google account or from an old SIM card.

However, the manual method through the VCF file (vCard) remains the most versatile format, supported by almost all operating systems. To create a backup, go to the Contacts settings, select Import/Export and select Export to Device Memory.

You can send the file to your mail, save it to the cloud, or transfer it over Bluetooth, and the reverse process, which is import, is done in a similar way: you pick the file, and the system suggests combining duplicates or creating new records.

When importing a large number of records, the phone may temporarily "think": do not interrupt the process and do not switch to other applications to avoid errors in writing to the database.

Cleaning of duplicates and merging of records

A common problem with Xiaomi users is the appearance of duplicate contacts, which happens when the same number is saved on both the SIM card and the Google account, or when a person changes the number and you create a new record instead of editing the old one, the database grows, and it becomes difficult to find the right number.

The built-in cleaning tool helps solve this problem. Go to the contact settings and find the item "Clear duplicates" or "Connect together." The system will analyze the list, find matches by phone number or name, and suggest combining them into one card.

When you merge, you store all the data from both of these records, the photos, the addresses, the notes, and you add it together, and you can create a complete digital identity for the person you're talking to in one card, and you can clean the phone book regularly.

• 🔍 Automatic search: the system itself offers to combine similar records.
• ✂️ Manual removal: you can choose the extra copies and delete them yourself.
• 🔄 Synchronization: After cleaning the phone, changes will immediately affect the cloud.

It is worth noting that some duplicates may be “hidden”; for example, if the number is written in +7 and 8, the system may not recognize them as the same, in which case it is useful to use third-party cleaning applications or edit numbers manually, bringing them to a single standard.

Display setting and list filtering

The comfort of using a phone book depends not only on the number availability, but also on how it is displayed. In the settings of the Contacts app on Xiaomi, you can flexibly adjust the list view, you can choose to sort by name or last name, which is relevant for different cultural traditions.

You can also filter your contacts, you can set your phone to only show numbers from your phone, ignoring contacts from messengers (Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram) if they clog the list, which makes the interface cleaner and clearer.

Font size is another important parameter, especially for people with visual impairment, and in the settings of the system or the contact application itself, you can zoom in on the text, making names and numbers more readable without having to wear glasses.

⚠️ Warning: Disabling the display of contacts from messengers does not remove them, but only hides them from the general list.

Don't forget the Blacklist feature, which is a separate category, but it's closely related to contact management, and you can add unwanted numbers directly from the call log, blocking spam and scammers.

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Use the Quick Notes feature in the Contacts app to record brief information about the conversation immediately after the call, which will help you remember the context when you next communicate.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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Regularly checking syncs and backing up VCFs is the only way to ensure that numbers are safe for years to come.