Helpful Display Settings#

Have you ever wondered :

  • Why does my screen brightness change wildly in different lighting condition?

  • How to make using smartphones less straining on my eyes?

  • How to stop accidental touches when using my smartphone?

  • Why is my fingerprint scanner not working properly after installing a screen protector?

Well, then this tutorial is for you! In this tutorial, we will go over some useful display settings on your smartphone that can make your user experience just a little better.

Switching Between Light and Dark Mode#

First, go to the Settings menu by either clicking on the gear icon or scrolling down on your home screen and clicking on the top right hand corner.



After opening settings, scroll down until you find the ‘Display’ section. Let’s click on it.



Now, at the top of this page, you will see the option to switch between dark and light mode. Currently we are in dark mode. Below you can see how the user interface looks with dark vs. light mode.

Automatic Brightness#

The idea behind automatic brightness is simple. If this feature is enabled, then your phone will increase the screen brightness when you are out in the sun so that it’s easy to read the screen content. Similarly, in dark environment, the phone will dim the brightness so that it’s less straining on your eyes.

Although automatic brightness sounds great, in reality, the feature doesn’t always work perfectly. Sometimes it will increase to full brightness in complete dark and sometimes it might dim the screen at sunlight. Not to mention, each person is comfortable using their phone at different brightness level. As a result, the phone automatically changing the screen brightness can get annoying at times. Thankfully, disabling automatic brightness is pretty simple.

By going to the Settings menu and then clicking on the Display section as shown above, you will the see the ‘Brightness Level’ tab. If you click on it, you will see a new page with the ‘Automatic Brightness’ feature enabled.



To disable it, just click on the blue toggle to the right. When it’s disabled, the toggle will become grey colored.

Screen Timeout#

Have you ever wondered:

  • Why does my phone screen goes off as soon as I leave it on the table?

  • Why does my phone screen stays on for a while if I just leave it unlocked?

If you have experienced either of those two problems, this part of the tutorial is for you! You can adjust the screen timeout period on your phone to set after how long the phone should lock itself if you accidentally leave the screen on.

To adjust this time, first go to the settings menu and look for the ‘Always-on display & Lock screen’ tab and click on it. This will take you to a new page where you will see the ‘Sleep’ option. Currently, your phone screen will go dark if you leave it unlocked for more than 10 minutes.



However, 10 minutes seem too high. If we accidentally leave our phone unlocked, then within 10 minutes someone could access personal information on our phone. To reduce this time, click on the ‘Sleep’ option and you will see a variety of options for screen timeout period. Let’s click on 1 minute and now phone will lock itself after 1 minute of inactivity.



Accidental Touch Protection#

Modern smartphones have quite large screen, and so, while using the phone, you might get an accidental touch from your palm and that might open something else than you intended too. Moreover, you might get accidental touch while putting your phone in your pocket. Enabling accidental touch protection ignores these accidental touches, making your user experience just a little better.

On Xiaomi phones, there is a feature called ‘Pocket Mode’ which ignores accidental taps and swipes when the phone is in your pocket. To enable pocket mode, first go to the ‘Always-on display & Lock screen’ section from the settings menu. This process is shown in the first two images of the screen timeout functionality we just discussed.

Now, scroll down on this page, and you will see the ‘Pocket Mode’ option. Click on it to enable this feature. When pocket mode is on, the toggle to the right will turn blue.



Congratulations! Now you know about all the helpful display related settings on your phone. Feel free to explore the settings menu on your phone to discover more interesting features.

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