HyperOS 4 will connect Xiaomi phones with iPhones even better. You can also pair them with Apple Watch

Anyone who has half iPhones and half Androids at home or at work knows how tedious it can be to send a simple photo from one phone to another. Xiaomi has been breaking down these barriers for a few years now, and with the HyperOS 4 overlay, it goes a step further. On October 7, the company announced on its official Weibo account that the new version of the system is reportedly fully compatible with the Apple ecosystem – from iPhone through iPad and Mac to Apple Watch.

What new features does HyperOS 4 bring to iPhone?

The basis remains sharing by bringing phones together. Just bring a Xiaomi phone close to an iPhone and you can transfer photos, files, contacts, and even an open web page. On the iPhone, you need the Xiaomi Interconnectivity app from the App Store, and both phones must be logged into the same Xiaomi account. Additionally, sharing by proximity previously required an iPhone 12 or newer with iOS 17.

A new feature is two-way cloud gallery browsing, so you can open photos from an iPhone on a Xiaomi phone and vice versa. When you receive a message or notification on one of the phones, it will also appear on the other, and you can reply to it without switching devices. According to Xiaomi, you won’t have to reach for your other phone just to see who’s messaging you.

Control your Xiaomi phone from Mac and iPad

The second part of the package is a feature that Xiaomi calls Home Screen+ outside of China. The Xiaomi phone screen will be displayed on your Mac or iPad, and you can control it directly from there. You can then simply drag and drop photos and files between devices, for example, from the phone’s gallery to a folder on your computer.

There are several conditions. Mac must be running at least macOS 12, iPad on iPadOS 14, and both devices need the mentioned Xiaomi app, the same account, a shared Wi-Fi or hotspot, and Bluetooth enabled. On the phone, you just need to enable device connection and Home Screen+ in the settings.

AirDrop and Apple Watch support are coming

Xiaomi phones are gradually learning AirDrop. As we wrote in May, Google extended the integration of its Quick Share with AirDrop to this brand as well. After the Xiaomi 17T Pro model, which received it in June, direct transfer to Apple devices has also been added to the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max. However, the iPhone owner must have AirDrop set to receive from everyone for 10 minutes in the Control Center.

Furthermore, with HyperOS 4, a Xiaomi phone is compatible with Apple watches for the first time. Via the Xiaomi Connect app for Apple Watch, the watch will pair directly with the Xiaomi phone. Calls, messages, and notifications will then go to your wrist, health and sports data will go in the opposite direction to the phone, and you can ring both devices to find them if you can’t. The phone needs HyperOS 4.0.1 and newer; supported watches include Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, SE 2nd generation and newer, and all Ultra models with watchOS 11 or newer. There is one limitation: you must first set up the watch via an iPhone, only then will the Xiaomi phone take over.

Some features were already available in HyperOS 3

It’s worth noting that a large part of the Apple integration was already supported by HyperOS 3, as we discussed in its new features overview. Message and call notifications synchronized in both directions, sharing by proximity and controlling the phone from an iPad worked, and Xiaomi could be unlocked via Face ID or Touch ID on Apple devices. The truly new features are mainly the two-way visible gallery, AirDrop, and Apple Watch support.

The stable version of HyperOS 4 debuted in September with the Xiaomi 18 Pro series, and other phones in China will start receiving it from October 15. Outside of China, only a global beta version is currently running, and Xiaomi has not specified whether the final global version will include all the mentioned features.

Do you use a Xiaomi phone alongside an iPhone, iPad, or Mac?

Sources: IThome, GSMArena, TechNode