Chinese conglomerate, Xiaomi will hold a launch event in its home country on the 24th of September where it will unveil MIUI 11, a couple of smartphones and an all-new premium-grade HD TV. In this article, we will discuss the MIUI 11 which is touted to bring a whole host of thoughtful features.
As the chronological name scheming suggests, MIUI 11 succeeds MIUI 10 which was unveiled last year. Within the last couple of weeks, the company has shared several teasers and posters on the social media website, Weibo. Based upon which, following are the features that the new OS will offer:
Children’s Space
It is evident that kids in the modern era are introduced to smart devices like tablets and smartphones at a very young age. According to the company, the Children’s Space on Xiaomi devices will be equipped with features that will help to entertain the kids.
Besides, this mode will also feature high-quality educational apps that will help kids to learn about new topics and subjects in an intuitive manner. Device administrators or parents, in this case, will be able to set which applications that a child can access and set a duration of use.
This space will also have smart eye-protection on by default which will safeguard the eyes of young kids from harmful blue light that a display emits. While in Children’s mode, if the device receives a phone call, the kids will be prompted with Mi Bunny that informs them to take the handset to a parent. (read more)
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Family Sharing
As the name suggests, this feature will allow smartphones or tablets of different family members to seamlessly synchronize content with each other. Therefore, users with the same family group account will be able to check out media content like photos and videos on each other phones. Noteworthy, individual users could also set boundaries as in what content others can see, maintaining a sense of privacy.
Additionally, Family Sharing on MIUI will allow users to track the location of other family members which is a security-oriented feature. It is also reported that a group admin will be able to track and limit app usage of other devices remotely which falls in line with the previously mentioned children’s mode. (read more)
Earthquake Warning
This is one of the key highlighting and vital features of MIUI 11. With the combination of system-level information access and organizations that can predict upcoming natural calamities, smartphones running this OS can alert users in case of an upcoming or ongoing earthquake.
When there’s a possibility of an earthquake in the surrounding area, a device running MIUI 11 will prompt with a pop-up message which will be followed by an alarm sound. Moreover, users will also be provided with information like the nearest emergency shelter, medical contacts, and the rescue information to help in a critical moment. (read more)
Smoother Animations, New Icons, and Other Design Changes
The MIUI experience chief had previously shared a post on Weibo that revealed interesting details about animations on the upcoming MIUI 11. The official stated the Xiaomi is one of the few device makers that use non-linear animations in the UI of their OS. He stated that this type of animations was first introduced with MIUI 6 which the company continued to improve upon by speeding them up to provide a responsive UI.
However, while working on MIUI 10, they realized that in addition to speed, the smoothness of the animation is equally important as it will make them more visually appealing. Therefore, the developers of MIUI11 have decided to make animations slightly slower which makes them more lustrous to the eye. (read more)
Previously leaked screenshots of MIUI 11 which were revealed by an accidentally seeded update exhibit that devices will also get enhanced Dark Mode and option to quickly reply to messages or WhatsApp conversations without opening the app itself.
Fewer Advertisements and Performance Optimisation
Due to the level of customization that MIUI offers, most users tend to appreciate the skin which is built on top of Android. However, in the last couple of iterations, users have complained about randomly appearing advertisements that could even serve profane content. In response to complaints and requests of users, Xiaomi had previously decided to reduce the number of ads that a device will display and completely disable ads that were deemed vulgar.
With the introduction of MIUI 11, the company may further reduce the number of adds or block them all together at least on high-end devices like the Redmi K20 Pro and Mi 9.
Even though Xiaomi has not shared a teaser that boasts of performance improvement, it is assumed that the MIUI 11 update will further optimize the OS which could help in faster app loading time.
Which devices will receive MIUI 11?
Unfortunately, Xiaomi has not yet revealed a comprehensive list that describes all smartphones that will support MIUI 11. Nonetheless, thanks to Xiaomi product manager there are several handsets that are confirmed to receive the update which includes the following:
- Mi 9, Mi 9 SE
- Mi 8, Mi 8 Pro, Mi 8 Explorer Edition,
- Mi Mix 2S, Mi Mix 3, Mi Mix 3 5G
- Redmi Note 7, Note 7s, Note 7 Pro
Besides, two other smartphones that will most likely be the first ones to receive the update include Mi Mix 5G, Mi 9 Pro 5G which will launch tomorrow.
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