How to take a screenshot in MIUI 8

MIUI 8 offers plenty of ways to take a screenshot.

There are three different ways to take a screenshot in MIUI 8, and Xiaomi rolled out a new scrolling screenshot feature that lets you capture an entire page. The operating system is slowly rolling out to more phones, and handsets like the Redmi Note 3 that picked up the update earlier this year are now receiving the Marshmallow-based builds of MIUI 8.

If you're new to MIUI 8 or are looking for easier ways to take a screenshot, here's what you need to know.

How to take a screenshot in MIUI 8

Use the power and volume button combination

The fastest way to take a screenshot in MIUI 8 is through the tried and tested combination of pressing down on the power and volume down buttons.

1. Get to the screen you want to capture.
2. Press and hold the power and volume down buttons at the same time.
3. Hold for a few seconds, and you'll hear the camera shutter accompanied by a short visual indicating the screenshot was captured.
4. Once the screenshot is taken, it will be accessible for a few seconds from the top right corner of the UI. You'll be able to share, annotate, or edit the screenshot by selecting it.

Alternatively, you can also press the volume down and menu keys simultaneously to take a screenshot.

Select the screenshot toggle from the notification panel

With MIUI 8, Xiaomi introduced quick toggles in the notification panel. The default pane offers a toggle through which you can quickly take a screenshot. While it's a convenient way of taking a screenshot, you won't be able to use this method to take a screenshot of the notification pane itself.

1. Get to the screen you want to capture.
2. Swipe down from the top of the screen to access the notification panel.
3. Select the Screenshot toggle to take a screenshot.

Use Quick Ball to take a screenshot

Quick Ball in MIUI 8 is similar to Assistive Touch in iOS. When enabled, you'll see a floating circle that lives on top of other apps, giving you quick access to five shortcuts: Home, back, recents, power off, and screenshot.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Navigate to Additional settings.
3. Go to Quick ball.
4. Toggle Turn on Quick ball.
5. Once it's enabled, tap Quick ball to access its shortcuts.
6. Select the Screenshot shortcut.

Extended screenshot

MIUI 8 offers a scrolling screenshot option that lets you capture a whole page in a single screenshot. To access the feature, you'll have to take a screenshot first using any of the aforementioned methods. Once the screenshot is taken, you'll see an animation in the top right corner that shows a preview of the screenshot. Select it, and you'll see options to edit, share, or delete the screenshot, as well as a scroll feature that lets you extend the screenshot.

Hit Scroll, and MIUI will continue scrolling down to the bottom of the page where it left off. The feature doesn't work in Chrome, but you will be able to save entire webpages when using the default MIUI browser.

Your turn

That's a quick look at all the options currently available to take a screenshot in MIUI 8. Select MIUI 8 beta builds also have a nifty option that lets you quickly take a screenshot with a three-finger swipe motion anywhere on the screen.

I wasn't able to access the option on any of the Xiaomi phones I currently have, but if it shows up in a stable build, I'll add it to the list.

What's your preferred way to take a screenshot in MIUI 8?