Skip to main content

This little button will let you snap photos without unlocking your phone

Xiaomi Mi Button
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This clever little accessory could change the way you use your smartphone, particularly if you’re always missing that all important photo opportunity while messing around unlocking your phone. It’s a small button mounted on a 3.5mm headphone jack, which you plug into your smartphone. A press will then take a picture without needing to unlock your device.

That’s not all. It will have 10 different, programmable functions, including being used to turn on the phone’s flashlight, or – slightly dubiously – record phone calls. All this will be controlled through a dedicated app, and each feature is activated using a certain number of button presses.

Xiaomi Mi Button SocketIf that reminds you of the Pressy Kickstarter campaign from last year, you’d be right, but this one is the work of Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi. Vice President of Xiaomi Global and former Google executive, Hugo Barra, posted images and a brief description of the button on his Facebook page. It’s not an official announcement yet though, and Barra is asking his followers to help name the device. Xiaomi uses the letters M and I on its phone hardware, and Barra suggests it may be named the Mi Key, Mi Press, or simply the Mi Button. It’s also not clear whether the button will only operate with Xiaomi phones.

Barra states the company wants to release the button to Xiaomi owners all over the world. He is tasked with expanding the brand internationally, and has already overseen an expansion to Singapore this year. We’re still hoping for some news regarding America or Europe in the future.

Fun little side projects like this button make Xiaomi stand out, but it already has a strong following in its home country. The initial run of 100,000 Redmi Note smartphone/tablet hybrids, which went on sale last week, sold out in just over 30 minutes.

Editors' Recommendations

Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Google just redesigned one of its biggest apps, and it’s bad
Google Chat app on the Play Store.

Google Chat — Google's business-oriented messaging platform that is similar to Slack and Microsoft Teams — just got a big update for its Android and iOS apps. The update dramatically changes how you navigate the app and, uh, well, it sure is something.

Google Chat's mobile app used to be broken up into two pages: Chat (direct messages between you and other users) and Spaces (larger chat rooms for multiple people). As with most apps, you switched between these with a navigation bar at the bottom of your screen.

Read more
The Pixel Watch 2 just got a feature it should have launched with
The Google Pixel Watch 2 resting on a stone fireplace.

Google has heard everyone’s demands and has given in to a highly requested feature that should have already been a thing with the Google Pixel Watch 2: a fully charged notification. Yes, that’s right — you’ll now get a notification on your Android phone when your Pixel Watch 2 is fully charged. Hallelujah!

This new feature should be available starting today via the Pixel Watch app on version 2.1.0.576785526. Google did not formally announce this feature, so it seems to be rolled out quietly (and was first spotted by Android Authority).

Read more
There’s only one reason I’m still using an iPhone in 2023
A green iPhone 15 lock screen.

It's not an understatement to say I am an Android smartphone fan, as an Android phone has been my faithful companion ever since I started using the HTC Desire in 2010. I've bounced from phone to phone in the 13 years since, and I've experienced good and bad phones alike. But in all that time, I've never spent much time with an Apple iPhone. I'm obviously not unfamiliar with iPhones, having used them during my time as a tech writer grabbing screenshots, downloading apps, and testing games — but never having used one as my primary smartphone is something of a blind spot.

The Apple iPhone 15 is a good reason to end that. After all, if I'm going to use an iPhone, it might as well be Apple's latest. Two weeks after booting it up and transferring my data to it, it's been ... a journey. While I can see the iPhone 15 is an excellent smartphone, too many of iOS's idiosyncracies rub me the wrong way. However, there's one feature I've grown to really love, and I'm going to struggle to live without it.
The iPhone 15 is a mixed bag

Read more