The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is one of the best sports wristbands that can be purchased today. With it Xiaomi has translated its philosophy of offering the best features at a very tight price, and although they may not be as complete as other alternatives of much more expensive specialized brands, it is still a complete bracelet that is updated with respect to the previous version with a larger screen that is now capacitive, an NFC chip and a heart sensor that is now more accurate.
It is complicated to summarize in just one article all the functions that this bracelet can offer, since it depends in no small extent on the Mi Fit application (an excellent way to add new functions to this wearable), but we do want to tell you some tips that will help you get the best out of it.
Put your Xiaomi Mi Band 3 in English
The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 version we had was in the Chinese language, and even the manual that came with it was all written in Chinese, so I had to install a modified MiFit APK version on my phone in other to install a patched firmware on your the band. Use on your own risk. You must uninstall the official MiFit application first, or the installation will fail (as the keys are different and the APK was resigned with debug keys). After successfully connecting the band to your smartphone, go to Profile > Settings > Check for updates on your phone and it will initiate a firmware update on the Mi Band 3.
After the update is complete, your Mi Band 3 Chinese language will be changed to English. Sounds easy right?
After you update the firmware, you can uninstall the modified APK and install the original one back.
Set the heart rate detection
The heart rate sensor is one of the most interesting functions of any sports bracelet, but also one of the worst enemies of its autonomy along with the screen. What many users do not know is that they have the possibility to extend the time interval in which the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 makes its measurements, something that will help to conserve a little more the battery of it.
To do this, we will access the Mi Fit application, and we will set a heart rate recognition time of 30 minutes, the maximum allowed by the application. These are the steps to follow:
- We opened the Mi Fit application
- We enter My profile and then My Band 3
- We select the section “Heart rate detection.”
- We click where it says “Frequency of detection” and we choose 30 minutes.
Turn off the screen while you sleep
We just said that the screen is one of the worst enemies of the battery of the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 because, despite its AMOLED technology, it is one of the elements that consume the most energy. A good way to save battery is to prevent it from turning on while we sleep while avoiding disturbing our partner, in case of sleeping accompanied.
To avoid the above, there is a little-known function within the My App related to the gesture of lifting the wrist that can be very helpful. We only have to make these adjustments:
- Access our Profile again in the My Fit app
- We click on My Band 3
- We enter the section of Raise the wrist to see information
- Activate this option as ” Programmed” and then configure the time schedule in which it will be necessary to raise the wrist to turn on the screen, which will coincide with our usual hours of sleep.
Control incoming notifications
Being able to read your WhatsApp messages on your Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is excellent, but when the bracelet does not stop flashing and vibrating with hundreds of notifications a day, you can finish a bit of nerve. From Xiaomi they are aware of this, and for that, they give us a complete menu in which we will select the apps that have permission to send notifications to the wristband, something that is advisable to configure at the same time that we silence one or another group of WhatsApp or Telegram.
If we want the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 to only inform us of the most important things we will have to enter our profile and later in the ” Application Alert ” section, once we confirm that it is activated, we will see a complete list with switches that will allow us choose which of our applications can send notifications to the wristband, where we will select only the ones that interest us the most.
Mute your phone using the Xiaomi Mi Band 3
Within the settings of the My Apps there is a new section called ” integrated applications “, a section that allows us to search the mobile, control the clock or the masks of the clock, but we can also silence our smartphone here without having to take it out of pocket, something that can be very useful at that time.
In order for our smartphone to stop ringing, we will only have to do the following:
- We turn on the screen of the Xiaomi Mi Band 3
- We go to the section of more, and we press in silence
- We leave the button of the bracelet pressed and wait for the bracelet to vibrate.
- We have already silenced our mobile and if we want to activate the sound we just have to repeat the same steps.
These are some of the most exciting tips and tricks for the new Xaomi bracelet, but there are many functions that it integrates, so we will be happy to tell us what you are discovering or any other anecdote about it.
