Xiaomi is one of the companies whose operating system hides more tools inside. MIUI will have its good things and its bad things but we must recognize the brand that has always been concerned about adding innovations to its system that make life easier for the user. In that sense, the brand added years ago, in MIUI 8, a tool, a ” floating ball ” that is still active today.
We could define this function as an accessibility tool that we can use on many occasions. But, before activating it, we must know what it does and when we should use it, since it has a good number of settings waiting for the user to adjust them.
Don’t worry, configuring it to your liking is a breeze .
What is this “floating ball” thing?
Quick Ball , which is how this version in the Anglo-Saxon language is known, is an assistant that we can integrate on the screen with a combination of five unique shortcuts that helps to perform functions and tasks easily. When you activate it, you will see a small ball sensitive to our gestures appear on the panel that can be used to execute various functions from the home screen itself. So you can take screenshots, lock the screen, show minimized applications and make use of many other general features.
Of course, the user can customize these quick shortcuts at will to make it easier for him to use the mobile, establishing, if desired, shortcuts to applications that are used frequently, either from the system or downloaded from the Android store. .
Best of all , MIUI’s “floating ball” can be placed anywhere on the screen. Even if you wish, you can also access it from the lock screen or hide it for a while in certain apps.
When to use this MIUI tool
Nothing prevents you from using this Xiaomi function at any time but it is especially practical to interact with our smartphones without needing to use the virtual or physical buttons on the phone. In this way, if your smartphone breaks for some reason and you can’t use the lock or volume button, you could replace it with this ball of shortcuts.
We can also use it when we want to activate various system functions, such as the flashlight, silence the mobile or activate the vibration mode without having to access each independent menu of the system.
Ultimately, the best thing is that you enable the tool, try it with your own hands, configure it, and discover for yourself what it can do for you. If it is not comfortable for you, you can disable it without major problem.
Activate the floating ball of your Xiaomi mobile
Enabling this MIUI tool does not have great complications. Just open the Settings app and then click on the Additional Settings option. You will see a list of options in this section but next you will find the “floating ball” menu. The last step is to enter this submenu and enable the switch that appears next to the tool. Now you can see a transparent round ball on the screen of your smartphone.
This function is the same as in the iPhone but beyond Apple phones, it is not available for all phones on the market as it contains unique features that come with MIUI, although it is possible to take it to other mobiles through a third-party application.
Once it has been activated, you can keep it pressed to navigate accordingly to what is configured by default: Return to the Home screen, Menu, Back, Screenshot and Lock.
Configure this “Quick ball” to your liking
The first thing we have to do before anything else is to place the floating ball where it is least disturbing. To do so, you simply have to keep your finger pressed on it and drag it to any region of the screen where it is more comfortable to use it. The logical thing is to place it at one of the ends of the panel, but you decide.
Once it is located where you want you can see that when you touch the point, it becomes opaque and splits into five more points around it. Each of them represents a different shortcut for a specific operation or application, such as the ones we have already indicated that it has pre-established by default. From the menu of Additional Settings we will be able to configure this button:
- Select shortcuts: This is the most important configuration for the tool as it gives immediate access to what we want. You can customize one of the 5 shortcuts by clicking on it and seeing how many frequently used operations and functions appear. If they appear in gray, they are already assigned to the tool.
If what you want is not to assign a function, but an app, simply slide your finger to the end of the list and select “Applications”, choose the one you want, be it WhatsApp, Facebook or TikTok and that’s it. - Preferred gesture: You can choose the gesture to interact with this “Quick ball”, either by touching it or by sliding your finger on it. By default the default setting is “Touch”, by which you must touch the round point and then touch the shortcut; but if you select “Swipe”, you can slide (forgive the redundancy) your finger in the direction of the shortcut more quickly.
- Auto hide: This function allows you to hide the MIUI ball when a certain type of apps such as games or video applications are running. You yourself can select in which apps the ball can disappear so that, as soon as you close it, it reappears on the screen as if by magic.
- Move to the side : When you enter an application that uses the full screen mode of your Xiaomi mobile, the ball will automatically move to one of the sides of the screen.
- Hit the edge after 3 seconds of inactivity : If you open the floating ball menu and do not click on any shortcut, they will contract and close again.
- Show on lock screen: You can decide whether to show the Quick Ball on the lock screen or not. Of course, from this screen there will be functions that, worth the redundancy, do not work, such as “menu”, “start” and “back” because they are actions that you will never be able to use on the lock screen.
- Activation areas : If the ball is hidden (or not), if you activate this option you will be able to enable the MIUI tool by touching any of the activation areas of the floating ball, which by default are the edges of the screen.
- Restore defaults: As the name suggests, this action will restore the default settings, including shortcuts and gestures, so you can reset them from scratch if you want.
