MIUI is one of the most popular custom Android interfaces in India owing to Xiaomi’s top spot in the Indian smartphone market. Yet, while the company’s devices have been praised for the ‘value for money’ hardware they offer, the interface itself has faced backlash for the company’s strategy to put ads in the UI. Showing ads on MIUI is a fairly recent development and ever since it was implemented, users and rivals have come together in criticising the move.
Now, Xiaomi Product Director and MIUI Experience Head confirmed that the company will be rolling out a switch that will allow users to disable ads in MIUI. The feature is being tested presently and could roll out with MIUI 11 which could be based on Android 10. He further confirmed that the feature will be rolled out to all Xiaomi phones in the next major update, possibly MIUI 11. The company’s independent brand Redmi has already taken measures to prevent ads from popping up on the Redmi K20 and the Redmi K20, two of the brand’s most premium offerings in India. However, other phones like the Redmi Note 7 Pro and the likes are still plagued with ads.
Last month, the Xiaomi executive said that the company has been working on reducing the number of ads users receive. Furthermore, Xiaomi CEO and co-founder Lei Jun had also confirmed that along with reducing ads in the interface, it will also remove inappropriate ads that mar the user experience. In case you don’t mind ads in the interface, Xiaomi will be modifying the ad algorithm so that users receive ads that are relevant to them.
Xiaomi claims to be a software company primarily. The hardware is only a means to get users to use its software. Yet, it’s hardware business continues to rake in the majority of the company’s revenues. The software and internet services contributed to 9.7 percent of the total revenue, a marginal growth from 9.1 percent last year.
Previous reports have tipped that MIUI 11 will be announced in China on September 24th alongside the Mi MIX 4 smartphone. MIUI 11 is presently being tested with the UI based on Android 10.