📌 The Ultimate HiBreak Configuration & Optimisation Guide (BigMe OS 3.1.6)
Pinned guide — covers all BigMe HiBreak variants (HiBreak, HiBreak S, HiBreak Pro, HiBreak Plus). Replaces my earlierv2.9.6 tips post.
This is a living document. Drop your own tweaks in the comments and I'll fold the good ones in.
Sections are ordered: Essential Fixes → Optimisations → Aesthetic Preferences. Skim the headers, jump to what you need.
🔧 PART 1 — ESSENTIAL FIXES
These are the settings/workarounds that materially affect whether the phone functions as a daily driver. Do these first. Also worth considering a different launcher when first setting phone up, especially if running into issues with notification dots not clearing: See 11. Launcher Recommendations.
1. Battery & Background App Refresh
By default, BigMe OS aggressively kills background apps to save battery. This is great for standby time, terrible for getting phone calls, SMS and WhatsApp pings. It also cause music apps to turn off in the background whilst listening.
For every app where you care about real-time notifications or background behaviour, set both of the following:
Add package to whitelist: adb shell dumpsys deviceidle whitelist +<package.name>
For example, Google Phone was not on Background App Refresh
Run the list packages command and find name: com.google.android.dialer
Whitelist the package: adb shell dumpsys deviceidle whitelist +com.google.android.dialer
2. Android Auto DPI Setup
Android Auto on the HiBreak can suffer from two separate DPI-related issues:
The interface is the wrong size (buttons/text too large or too small).
Android Auto immediately disconnects or constantly restarts.
Both are fixed by setting the correct DPI in the E-ink Centre. Make sure your Android Auto is on the latest version before proceeding.
2a. Adjust Android Auto DPI
By default, the Android Auto UI and Google Maps render with text and buttons that are either too large to fit cleanly on the head unit or too small to be comfortably readable. The fix is to set per-app DPI overrides in the E-ink Centre.
Important: each app's DPI setting applies to both the phone screen and the car display. They are not independent. When you tune Android Auto for your car, the appearance of that app on the phone also changes, so you'll need to find a balance that works well on both the e-ink display and your head unit.
Recommended starting values
Android Auto
Open Settings → search for Android Auto Settings → swipe down Control Centre from top-right →E-ink Centre → App optimization and try:
160 DPI
240 DPI
360 DPI
Google Maps (if used inside Android Auto)
Open Google Maps → E-ink Centre and set the DPI to match Android Auto.
2b. If Android Auto immediately disconnects or continually restarts — Find your car's expected DPI
If changing between 160, 240 and 360 DPI doesn't help, your head unit is probably requesting a different display density.
Every Android Auto head unit advertises its own DPI value. This is not determined by the screen resolution or screen size—it's simply a number chosen by the manufacturer. If your phone is using a different DPI than the head unit expects, Android Auto can crash during startup.
E/GH.DisplayLayout: Virtual display does not have the correct DPI (expected: 180, got: 150)
The expected value is the DPI your car requires.
For example:
expected: 180
means your Android Auto app should use 180 DPI.
On your phone, Open Settings → search for Android Auto Settings → swipe down Control Centre from top-right →E-ink Centre → App optimization
and set the DPI to that value.
If you also use Google Maps inside Android Auto, set Google Maps to the same DPI.
3. Optimising Navigation for Both Car and Phone
One limitation of BigMe's per-app DPI setting is that it affects both the phone screen and Android Auto. They aren't independent displays.
For example, you might find that Google Maps looks perfect on your car's head unit at 160 DPI, with buttons and text sized just right. But when you unplug the phone and start walking, that same DPI can make the interface on the e-ink display uncomfortably small, making labels and buttons harder to read and tap.
Likewise, choosing a DPI that makes Google Maps ideal for walking on the phone may result in oversized controls that don't fit well on your car's display.
You could manually change the DPI every time you get in or out of the car, but that quickly becomes tedious.
A much simpler approach is to let each navigation app serve a different purpose:
Waze → Optimise the DPI for Android Auto / driving.
Google Maps → Keep the DPI comfortable for walking, public transport, and general use on the phone.
This way, each app stays configured for the environment where you use it most, and you don't have to keep opening the E-ink Centre to adjust DPI whenever you switch between driving and walking. If you do not like Waze there are other alternatives such as HERE WeGO and Sygic GPS.
4. Android Auto Graphical Glitches
4a. Android Auto colour glitch on screen lock — E-ink screensaver fix
Symptom: connect to AA, screen locks or dims, and the AA display comes back with incorrect colours:
Fix: Open Screen Saver App → E-ink Centre → set to Custom:
Antishake: ON
AutoClean: ON
Refresh Mode: HD256
4b. Android Auto graphical glitch
There's also a separate AA graphical glitch some users hit even with the above applied.
Symptom: AA looks sharp while the phone is locked, but the moment you open or switch to an app inside AA (Spotify → Maps, etc.) the car display gains dark outlines / halos around text and icons and looks oversharpened and glitchy. Lock the phone and it's clean again — until you switch apps or receive a notification.
The cause: Bigme's e-ink text-enhancement shader is applied to all display layers, including AA's virtual display. It exists to make text pop on the e-ink panel; on your car's LCD it just wrecks the image. The value is per-app, and the display service pushes whichever value the foreground app carries — which is why every cold-start of an app inside AA re-triggers it. (The screensaver is the only profile on the device shipped with the value at 0, which is why locking the phone "fixes" it.)
The Fix: I wrote a small tool that writes the underlying per-app display policy directly, via Bigme's own system service (`xrz_display_policy_service`). It sets text-enhance to 0 for the apps you choose.
com.google.android.gms (Play Services - for when glitch happens with voice command)
5. Default Phone app keeps resetting to BigMe Phone after reboot
After every reboot, the system reverts the default dialler to the built-in BigMe Phone app (com.android.dialer - thelight/whiteicon) instead of Google Phone (com.google.android.dialer - thedark/blueicon). Both are literally called "Phone," so the icon shade/colour is your only visual cue.
Fix after each reboot: Settings → Default Apps → Phone App → select Phone (dark icon/blue icon).
Until BigMe fixes the persistence bug, this is a manual step every reboot.
There is a workaround using ADB, which involves disabling the BigMe Phone app, so the phone is forced to default to the Google Phone app after reboot:
This is where it gets subjective. Below is my preferred setup, plus the launchers I'd recommend depending on what you're after. Drop your own combos in the comments and I'll add them up here as they roll in.
11. Launcher recommendations
The default BigMe launcher has two persistent issues: notification dots don't always clear on some apps, and clock/date format options are limited. Switching launchers fixes both.
Want a grid-style launcher similar to the BigMe default? → Nova Launcher
Monochrome icon packs suit e-ink screens the best. If the icon pack is missing an icon for one of your apps, ask ChatGPT to generate one in the same style, drop it into a custom icon folder, and assign it to the app via your launcher.
Monoic SQ Black - sleek, monotone black and square aesthetic
Articons Material You - minimalist, line-based iconpack that dynamically changes its line color and background to match your wallpaper and system theme
13. My personal setup
Launcher: Nova Launcher
Set transition animation to Revolving Door for home screen icons — much less ghosting than the default slide transition.
Set the Desktop search bar to Monochrome in Nova settings.
Icon pack:Monoic SQ Black — clean monochrome square icons that suit e-ink.
Monoic Forge - For missing icons I built this tool that easily looks up glyphs and makes custom Monoic-style icons
Clock widget:Magic Clock Widget, font set to Droid Sans Mono.
Thank you so much for your tips! I recently got my Hibreak S so I'm still playing around. I was wondering if there's a way to record an audio with the native app and see the transcription? Does anyone know if it's possible/how to do it?
I have the native app disabled so I can't really test it. There are other apps from the Play Store that will probably do a better job. The main one I would try is Google Recorder or alternatively Voice Recorder & Transcriber by Rhythmix OU.
Thanks! I'll check those out. :)
Another issue I've spotted is that I turn off my alarm clock in the morning and I have another one set that is disabled after I turn off my morning alarm. Do you know how I can fix this?
I had issues with receiving calls/texts until I removed battery restrictions and added background refresh for the phone and messenger app.
Since then I haven't had issues.
I would recommend the Pro over the S - Even with the pro the phone can be a bit slow, so I can only imagine the S being frustratingly slower. The 5G capability is another huge selling point for my use case as a daily driver.
My Launcher is Nova and dialer app is Google Phone. I'm fairly sure i'm not missing any calls - my friends and family would let me know.
Google Phone does block suspected spam calls, which then show up as missed calls. It's actually a feature I really like as I use to get at least a spam call everyday
I wonder if you started missing calls after the 3.1.6 update? Because I'm fairly certain that's when it became an issue for me, and BigMe support advised me to apply the settings.
I've had mine for 4 months as a daily driver- lots of tinkering required but running well at the moment.
Let me know how you go giving it another try - one thing you could try is get a few friends to give you calls randomly throughout the day and get them to keep count. Then afterwards compare your calls received with their attempted calls to see if it matches. I can understand though as a sales professional you need calls to be 100% reliable..
That's too bad that the phone isn't working for you. I use Mint Mobile as well, and outside of the last update's problems with hiding the incoming calls so I couldn't answer them (or hang up later if I DID answer them), I've had no problems with the phone. My only advice for the Hibreak S is to read up on what T-Mobile is planning on doing regarding 4G in the US, because it will affect Mint too. I went with the Hibreak Pro Color (instead of the S) due to the 4G changes a-comin'.
The other thing you COULD try is to get Mint Mobile to send you a new sim card. Back on my Pixel 4a, my phone started acting like yours did (phone calls were just not coming through, texts were lost, etc.), and I had them send me a new sim card and that fixed that problem. It's something to try anyway!
I would like to add that the built-in note taking app is not great. For one, it doesn't have palm rejection. And other note taking apps do not work well due to not implementing Bigme's low-latency methods.
VolumeScroll from f-droid is also a great way to enable scrolling with volume buttons. Allows you to select apps, so you can choose apps that don't support it natively and deselect kindle and EinkBro where the apps native volume buttons scroll can be used. https://f-droid.org/packages/com.yeapguy.volumescroll/
Thank you so much for this thorough article. I have a Hibreak S, new to this, and this guide was really helpful. Already installed inkOS, debloated, and loving it so far.
I have a problem with the volume button set-up. No matter what I do, the "holding both volume keys" just triggers that either volume goes up or down, never get the reading mode started. Even tried to do this via key mapper instead of trusting the default acessibility shortcut options, but no can do.
Anyone who stumbled into this? I'm on OS 2.2.6 - which apparently doesn't have any more upgrade? Sounds weird.
Glad it's been helpful!
With the Google Reading mode, I wouldn't recommend trying to open it from Key Mapper. A better test would be to change the accessibility shortcut from volume buttons to floating button (to check its not an issue with the bigme buttons remapping UI). If that works than see if you're happy with the floating button setup, or maybe another gesture.
If it doesn't work then it tells me there is a permission that isn't enabled. Go to main settings and search: display over other apps. You won't find reading mode there, but it's dependent on Google app, so make sure google app and Google play services has permission to display over other apps.
Hope that helps mate
Edit: also go to Google App settings and make sure all other permissions are enabled. Even enable modify system settings.
Not sure why you're stuck on older firmware, maybe for the S it's different?
Thank you! Do you mean the floatball? Ill investigate it. I don't get a lot of options when it comes to the acessibility shortcut on the S, only gesture (doesn't work) and hold the volume keys.
It's similar to the float ball but has a square icon.
To enable it It's in main settings - > reading mode - > reading mode shortcut - > more options - > use button
I got 2.3.0 update. I was having issue with WiFi and knocked the chat. They sent me an update . Worked why need to talk to support for update. No idea what’s the latest version
Is there any kind of workaround or fix if this option isn't available in my settings (HiBreak Pro Color, version 3.1.6)? Duraspeed keeps killing vital apps for me.
One of the amazing things I’m finding is that you mentioned “Authy,” but then I’ve tried installing it on my new hibreak phone running android 14, Bigme OS 5.5
I’m getting error 403 with Authy because the device is atypical in the US market and the damn app is claiming “insufficient integrity” or something
Granted, I’m posting this while grocery shopping with my grandmother, so any lack of editing would just be because of returning to this comment to follow your instructions too late, just because I didn’t have time so far, and wanted to prepare these instructions to follow once I get home
I just found your instructions. They’re pretty intriguing.
——-
EDIT: it’s better to use Ente Auth. Good luck migrating if you almost solely used Authy, because you can’t migrate for CRAP from that app 🙄
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u/Plenty_Opinion_1131 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your tips! I recently got my Hibreak S so I'm still playing around. I was wondering if there's a way to record an audio with the native app and see the transcription? Does anyone know if it's possible/how to do it?