Hyophila is often placed in the tribe Barbuleae (Saito 1975, Norris & Koponen 1989, Zander 1994a) close to Barbula subgenus Hydrogonium, a subgenus with mostly smooth, bulging mammillose leaf cells. Within this context Saito (1975) considered the cylindrical, eperistomate capsules with oblong, thick-walled exothecial cells peculiar features of the genus. Zander (1993) treated Hyophila in a very different way when he placed the genus in the subfamily Pottioideae tribe Hyophileae. The Hyophileae are distinguished by their leaves that are tubulose when dry and have upper leaf cells that greatly bulge on the ventral but are more or less plane on the dorsal surface. Species with both one or two stereid bands in the costa and those exhibiting a full range of peristome development are accommodated in Zander’s Hyophileae.

The calyptra in Hyophila is curiously twisted around the mature capsule in a way reminiscent of that seen in Calymperes. This large, mostly tropical genus has species with a  field aspect similar to Hyophila as well as greatly bulging-mammillose ventral leaf cells. Calymperes, which is also eperistomate, differs from Hyophila in having well-developed basal cancellinae, usually an intra-marginal teniola, and often thickened leaf margins. Interestingly, some members of Zander’s tribe Hyophileae have an intra-marginal teniola (Teniolophora Reese) or strongly differentiated inner basal leaf cells (Weisiopsis Broth.).