[GUIDE] How to add Chinese and European devices under one app in Xiaomi Home?

Xiaomi is not new to the smart home devices market. All these devices work with the Xiaomi Home app (Mi Home).

However, the problem arises if you have both Chinese and European versions of the devices. In this article, you’ll learn how to solve this problem using a modified app.

Why are different device versions a problem?

During the initial setup of the Xiaomi Home app, you choose the region where the app will run. That’s where the problem starts. Smart devices intended for the Chinese market can be added to the app only if you have the region set to China.

On the other hand, if you have global versions of smart devices, you need to set the region to one of the European countries. You can choose only one region, so you have to decide whether you’ll use global or Chinese versions.

Not all Xiaomi smart devices have a global version, and it’s also not ideal if you want to save money and buy during sales by focusing only on one region.

Modified Xiaomi Home app by Vevs

The region issue mentioned above is solved by a modified app from an Italian developer, available under the name Xiaomi Home by Vevs. You wouldn’t look for this app in the Google Play store unnecessarily. Since it’s a modified, so-called region-free app. You can download it from this link.

In the app, it’s recommended to choose Germany as the region, but it works with any region. However, we don’t recommend selecting China, because you may run into latency issues connecting to Chinese servers, which causes instability and annoying delays.

Installing the modified Xiaomi Home app

If you already have the Xiaomi Home app that you downloaded via Google Play, uninstall it. To install an app that isn’t available in the Google Play store on your smartphone, you need to enable installation from unknown sources. In our case, we downloaded and opened the app via Google Chrome, so we enabled installation from unknown sources for this browser.

After opening the downloaded file with the .apk extension and then opening it, you will be prompted to change these settings. If that does not happen, go to the app settings (Settings – Apps – Manage apps) and choose Chrome there. On the opened Google Chrome settings screen, change “Install apps from unknown sources” to yes.

On the next screen, you’ll get a warning that informs you about possible risks. Here, tick the checkbox “I am aware of the possible risks and voluntarily accept all possible consequences” and click OK.

Once you change this setting, you can install apps that aren’t in the official store. A good example is the popular benchmark AnTuTu, which was removed from Google Play a few years ago.

First launch and adding devices

On the first launch of the Xiaomi Home app, you’ll be asked to choose a region. We selected Slovakia. The next step is signing in to your Xiaomi account. If you don’t have one yet, just register.

At this point, the app is ready to add devices. Whether you’re adding Chinese or global products, you’ll see them all together nicely, without needing to change the region. If you’ve been using the Xiaomi Home app before and already had devices added, you’ll probably need to add the Chinese versions again.

Seamless operation

We’ve been using this modified smart home app for several months now. We’ve added multiple smart devices to it. Most are global versions, but we also have a few Chinese ones – the IMILAB A1 camera and also a pair of thermometers.

During testing different products like cameras or robotic vacuum cleaners, we no longer have to worry whether it’s the Chinese or the global version. All the products we’ve used so far have worked flawlessly. We haven’t noticed any delays or connection dropouts either.

For more tips and tricks for Chinese devices—not only from Xiaomi—also follow our ChinaPlanet Facebook page. We also invite you to our friendly Xiaomi Planet group on Facebook, where we build an active Xiaomi community.