In this article, I will explain how to set the home screen layout, move applications, remove applications and create folders in Xiaomi’s MiUI interface.
First of all, there are two types of MiUI home screen layouts:
- Classic Layout
- App Drawer
The system called the app drawer is the standard Android layout. One or two pages are devoted to major applications; the rest of the apps are hidden in the app drawer. You get there by selecting open the app drawer from the home screen or by swiping up with two fingers from the bottom of the screen.
It’s actually a nice system; saves you from navigating each application one by one, thus very functional, lets you find what you are looking for easily.
Speaking of the classic layout, every application installed here is added to the layout with an icon on the home screen. If you install hundreds of apps on the phone, you may end up having lots of home screen pages.
In this case, it becomes crucial for us to change the positions of the apps, to bring the most used apps to the first page or to move the least used apps to other pages.
There are several ways to switch to the “Edit Mode” to arrange these apps:
- Press and hold the overview key to open the “Edit mode”.
- Hold your finger on the app and drag it on the screen
- Switch to “Edit mode” by pinching two fingers
First of all, I must state that it is not practical and accessible to drag the applications on the screen by holding down the app icons.
My advice is to switch to the “Editing mode” by pressing and holding the overview button, but beware that the cursor should not be on the dock field, otherwise the edit mode can not be activated; or pinch the screen with your thumb and index fingers.
Assume you activated the edit mode using either methods above; After that, you’ll hear that screen reader announcing “Not checked” next to the app icons, excluding folders.
You have to mark the applications you want to move.
You then need to move them next to an app.
Let’s say you want to move an application to the first page; you have to specify an application on the first page, the applications you will move will be placed next to that application.
You must also mark the application you specified. After you mark that application, double-tap that application again, this time after the second touch, you have to hold it without removing your hand. The screen reader will announce how many applications you have marked in total, including the app you specified on the target page, for example you will hear screen reader saying: 6 applications are being dragged. Now you can lift your finger. You will notice that selected apps have been moved. If you have followed these steps; The operation was successful. If there had been a problem, you must have done something wrong.
So how do we create the folders?
For this, after switching to the screen editing mode, you have to mark the applications you want to put in the folder. At the bottom of the screen, you will see the screen previews. As you swipe to the right, you can focus on the page icons. Clicking these icons allows you to switch to other pages. You can also switch between pages by swiping two fingers left and right.
After you decide on which page you will perform the operation, Find the “group” option in the upper left corner of the screen. You can activate this icon directly by finding and tapping on it or navigating on the screen by swiping left and right till you find “group” option and tap on it.
As soon as you tap on the group, the apps you selected will be moved into a folder. Since this folder does not have a name, you can change the name of the folder by tapping on the area announced “folder” by the screen reader when you open the folder.
If you want to uninstall apps, you can mark the apps you wish to remove and then tap the “remove” at the upper middle section of the screen.
Another way to remove an app is double-tap and hold the application without activating the home screen editing, and tap uninstall or remove at the bottom of the screen.
There might surely be more practical solutions; But for now, these tips seem to be the easiest.
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