Xiaomi has undoubtedly mastered the art of capturing emerging markets with impressively-specced, reasonably priced phones. The one thing that they do lack, however, is software development. One might argue that MIUI is one of the better custom Android Forks out there, but anyone who has ever used a Xiaomi/Redmi phone will attest to the fact that the UI is riddled with ads. Now, I'm not an MIUI hater by any means and rather enjoy some of the features the Fork has to offer.
There are ads every built-in app, in the notification bar, as a full-screen layer when opening some app, or just as banners in multiple apps. The worst part is, there is no way to opt out of the in-app ads. You're pretty much stuck with them. The only way out is to get rid of MIUI completely and install a third-party ROM. Thankfully, things are about to change in the coming weeks. Xiaomi’s Product Director told XDA Developers about the following changes that'll come to MIUI in the future.
- The company has already reduced the number of places in MIUI where advertisements are served and will continue to make reductions in the next 2 months.
- The company will make sure that no “vulgar” advertisements will be shown to users, especially in the notifications.
- The MIUI browser app will show fewer advertisements within 2-3 months.
- All advertisements will be clearly disclosed to the user, and users will have the express ability to suspend or close ads.
- Xiaomi will make it easier to find advertisement controls in MIUI system apps and settings.
The changes will make their way to subsequent builds on MIUI in the coming months. No, the ads won't go away entirely, but we'll take what we can get at this point. Looking at the last point, it may be possible but it is very likely that the toggle will be buried deep in within MIUIs already labyrinthine Settings app.
About the author: Anil has been a lifelong tech enthusiast and has worked a variety of jobs before joining the Wccftech team in 2018. His primary responsibilities include reporting on all things in the Android and mobile gaming sphere. He is also passionate about PC hardware, obscure music and internet culture. He also has a thing for addressing himself in third person as an exercise in self-awareness.
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