Xiaomi is building its own version of Samsung's Privacy Display. Screenshots and a short video posted on August 28 by leaker Kacper Skrzypek show a "Smart Privacy Display" menu inside Xiaomi's software, and Android Authority reports that the feature is expected to arrive with the HyperOS 4 update later this year. The goal is simple: stop the person beside you from reading your screen at an angle.
Samsung brought the idea to market with the Galaxy S26 Ultra in February. Xiaomi has not confirmed its own feature yet, but the leaked interface suggests the work is well advanced — and that Xiaomi wants to give users more fine-grained controls than Samsung currently offers.
What the leaked settings reveal
The leaked video was recorded on a Global ROM — the software build Xiaomi ships outside China, including on phones sold in the Philippines. The settings show three layers of control:
- Custom app groups. You can create groups and assign specific apps to each, so different apps can follow different privacy rules.
- Automatic protection for sensitive pages. A "page privacy display" mode switches the screen into privacy mode on its own when it detects password fields, payments, money transfers, or messaging threads.
- Per-notification control. Privacy can also apply to individual notifications, on top of a device-wide toggle.
The leaked build lists some practical limits. According to Android Authority, the feature does not work in landscape mode, may increase power consumption, switches off when battery saver is on, and pauses brightness compensation while HDR (high dynamic range) video is playing. Some third-party themes may not support it.
One important caveat: the leaker notes that the automatic "page privacy display" option and the app groups tied to Xiaomi's Hyper XiaoAI assistant currently appear only on the China ROM. Global users may get a trimmed-down version at first.
Software trick or Samsung-style hardware?
Samsung's implementation on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is built into the panel itself. The technology, called Flex Magic Pixel from Samsung Display, controls how light leaves the screen at the pixel level, so the display simply becomes unreadable from side angles. Sammy Fans notes that Samsung Display has reportedly kept its Privacy Display OLED panels exclusive to Samsung's own phones until 2028 — which is exactly why rivals need another route.
Most reporting, including earlier leaks from May and June, points to Xiaomi taking the software path inside HyperOS 4: masking or dimming sensitive content rather than physically steering light. A software approach is unlikely to block side views as completely as Samsung's hardware does, but it has one big advantage — it can roll out to many existing Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO phones instead of being locked to a single flagship.
There is still an open question here. Some coverage speculates that the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max could pair the software with hardware-level privacy tech of their own, while Gizmochina points out that it remains unclear how Xiaomi's version works at the hardware level. Until Xiaomi says something official, treat the mechanism as unconfirmed.
Xiaomi 18 Pro launch and HyperOS 4 timing
The Smart Privacy Display is expected to debut on the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, which are rumored to launch in September and could be among the first phones running Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro chipset. The feature rides on HyperOS 4, which Xiaomi unveiled earlier this month with its Glass UI redesign; the stable rollout is expected to reach flagships first in the coming months before expanding down the range.
Samsung is not standing still either. Privacy Display is reportedly set to expand across all four Galaxy S27 models in early 2027, and early Galaxy S27 Ultra design leaks suggest the next flagship generation is already deep in development.
An anti-peek screen without the ₱86,990 entry fee
Right now, the only phone officially sold in the Philippines with a built-in anti-peeking display is the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which launched locally in February at ₱86,990 for the 256GB model, rising to ₱121,990 for the 1TB version. If Xiaomi ships its version as HyperOS 4 software, similar protection could reach far more affordable Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO phones that are already common in Philippine stores.
Philippine units run the Global ROM and follow Xiaomi's global update schedule, so the feature should arrive here on the same wave as everywhere else — but remember that some of the leaked options are China-only for now, and Xiaomi has not confirmed the feature, its supported devices, or its markets. There is also no Philippine pricing or availability for the Xiaomi 18 series yet; Xiaomi's number series typically debuts in China first before any global release. For commuters who do their banking and chatting on crowded trains, though, this is a feature worth waiting for.
