Xiaomi Owners: This MIUI 14 Feature Improves Your Video Calls in the Dark

This function, excellently translated into French as "Fill Light Brightness", is part of the front camera assistant. Basically, it's a floating button that appears on your screen when you use your Xiaomi smartphone's selfie camera.

• Discover all hidden MIUI 14 functions to test on your Xiaomi smartphone

This assistant doesn't always appear, and not in all applications. Strangely enough, it doesn't appear in the photo application, for example. Sometimes, you really don't have to try to figure it out with Xiaomi.

But back to the Fill Light function. I discovered it while making a video call with my sister on WhatsApp. We often call each other late at night, and I'm often sprawled out on my bed in the dark.

So I see this little button floating at the top left of my screen. I press it and a larger button with the text "Fill Light" appears, I press it and the edges of my screen start to glow an intense white. Many smartphones, including Xiaomi, offer similar functions to light up your selfies.

But here, it's a context-sensitive mode that can't always be activated. Apart from WhatsApp, this button also appeared in Meta's Messenger and in Microsoft Teams. It did not appear on Skype, however.

As I explained above, this "Fill Light" mode is part of the Front camera assistant function, one of the new features of MIUI 14 we reviewed a few weeks back. To activate it:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Choose Additional settings.
3. Scroll to the Special Features section and select Front camera assistant.
4. Activate the switch labeled Front camera assistant.

You can then adjust the intensity of the light diffused by the "Fill Light" mode just as if you were adjusting the brightness of your screen, with a simple bar.

What do you think of this MIUI 14 feature? Have I just discovered hot water, or were you unaware of this feature too?