Software
Xiaomi launches MIUI 12 global update with more privacy controls, a new user interface.
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Xiaomi unveiled Tuesday the global version of MIUI 12, the latest update to its Android-based operating system, for hundreds of millions of smartphones as the Chinese electronics giant pushes to expand its services ecosystem.
The world's fourth largest smartphone company said it is delivering a range of new features to its overseas users with MIUI 12, including a refurbished user interface, the ability to display the phone without needing to connect to a computer, improved support for multitasking and battery life, and more user privacy controls.
The main of the recent improvements is how the app looks like. The company executive said that animation makes things slightly different after installing MIUI 12, stretching more naturally across the screen — especially on smartphones with rounded corners — as the user taps the app.
Xiaomi has been able to offer this graphical upgrade thanks to what she terms "kernel-level creativity" that involves a new rendering engine, she said.
"With our rendering, we've made it possible to combine color and Gaussian blur. You can see various degrees of blurring occurring in real time as light penetrates different materials, "explained Louisa Jia, Head of Marketing and Operations at Global MIUI, at today 's case.
MIUI 12, which is built on top of Android 9 and Android 10 (depending on the device on which it will be rolled out), also changes how storage, memory and power consumption are displayed on the phone, making it easier for users to quickly understand the state of their device at a glance.
As part of the new paint coat, Xiaomi is also deploying dark mode across all third-party apps, including those that have not yet implemented support for this feature.
Multitasking support also increases, pops up any additional device on a floating screen that users can push around to any part of the screen and easily interact without having to break from the game or other device they were focused on. The company said that it is also launching a "ultra battery saver" feature that kicks in when the phone charge level is 5 percent. The new feature shuts off any non-essential service to provide an additional five hours of battery life.
Privacy
Another noteworthy aspect of the business is the implementation of more privacy controls for users. MIUI 12 will allow users to easily track and restrict applications from using camera, microphone, venue, contacts, storage, call history and calendar.
Whenever an app uses any of these, a persistent icon appears in the notification bar, tapping which will allow users to see which app is using this data and easily shut that access. In addition, as with newer versions of Android and iOS, MIUI 12 offers users the opportunity to decide how frequently the device will access confidential personal information.
Xiaomi said with MIUI 12, it also gives users the ability to remove sensitive information, such as location data from a photo before they share it with their friends. By default, the new operating system will remove such data from photos — a feature that privacy advocates have long wanted, and the Slack business communication app recently introduced to its service.
MIUI 12 will roll out to select smartphones — Mi 9, Mi 9 T, Mi 9 T Pro, Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro — at the end of June, and hundreds of smartphone models, including Poco F1 and Redmi 6, released in 2018, soon after, said Jia.
The company said it would make the beta edition of MIUI 12 available to users next week for those who don't want to wait too long.
More than 300 million smartphones ran MIUI software at the end of last year, Xiaomi announced in its most recent earnings call at the end of March. The business has previously reported that it is dependent on MIUI to extend its ecosystem services as it aims to reduce its financial reliance on the selling of gadgets.
In 2018, Xiaomi began displaying ads in the lockscreen and settings app to users in India and selecting other markets.
