Last year, Xiaomi had launched the MIUI 11 global version for their devices worldwide running on top of Android 9 and 10. We saw some visual and battery optimization changes as major changes. Now, Xiaomi has announced its next-generation MIUI 12 custom ROM in China. It has been just a few months since MIUI 11 was launched globally, and now the company has started offering MIUI 12 with some significant changes. This is a welcome change as Xiaomi is always held accountable for slow updates on their wide variety of devices. The company has also given out the list of devices that will be receiving the new update, along with the dates for each one of them.

Xiaomi’s affordable hardware might be the draw for most users, but the MIUI Android skin has its fair share of fans. Despite being called out for taking design cues from Apple, Xiaomi has done an excellent job bringing the latest software enhancements, backporting features to older devices through MIUI. With MIUI 12, Xiaomi continues to introduce privacy, usability, and interface enhancements with a sprinkling of iOS styling thrown in for good measure. While final builds will not start rolling out till later in the year, we managed to download and flash a MIUI 12 beta ROM of the Chinese version and flashed it on a Redmi Note 7 Pro. Here are some of the most notable MIUI 12 features we’ve come across so far.

What is MIUI 12?

MIUI 12 is a custom skin based on the Android operating system for Mi and Redmi phones. In other words, MIUI 12 is a modified version of Android OS with infinite customizations options. It brings several exciting features including Dark Mode 2.0, Dynamic Always-on Display with over 1000+ custom animated styles, AI Calling, Navigation gestures and more.

A fresh new interface

With MIUI 12, Xiaomi has paid special attention to minimalism in interface elements. The new icon pack is clean to look at and is fully animated. In fact, animations across the board have received an upgrade and enjoy some extra visual flair.

Instead of popping out from the middle of the screen, each animation is now triggered by respective icons which makes the experience look a lot more cohesive. There are subtle animation cues strewn all across the system interface that add to the aesthetics. For example, the storage widget in the about page dynamically adjusts to give you a visual notification of the percentage of free storage.

The settings pane has got an overhaul with sub-menu elements sporting larger text at the top which almost looks Windows Phone like in nature. Elsewhere, font kerning has been increased to give the text a more spaced-out, cleaner look.

Perhaps the biggest change is the switch to an iOS-style Control Center. The quick settings panel from the pull-down notification shade has been split off into its own separate page. Swiping down on the right side of the home screen reveals the Control Center while a swipe on the left side brings out the notification pane. In theory, it improves one-handed access to quickly accessed settings but in my time with the beta, I found it hard to get used to the new layout. If you’re not a fan, it is easy enough to switch back to the older layout.

MIUI 12’s Super Wallpapers are perhaps the flashiest new addition to the interface. The company has shown off two packages inspired by Earth and Mars related imagery. The wallpaper switches the level of magnification dynamically depending on where you are in the interface, scrolls along with the home screen panels.Personally, I can see it getting tiresome after a while but avid theme lovers might find it an enjoyable addition

MIUI 12 Update Tracker

May 6: Xiaomi has announced the Pilot Testing Program where they have started recruiting people to test the MIUI 12 Global ROM (pre-release build). In the Pilot Testing Program, for India, only Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro users can apply via Google form. The program has also announced globally where Mi 9, Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro users can apply for the Global pre-release build. The registration process will end on 15th May, at 9 pm IST.

May 3: Xiaomi.eu team has released MIUI 12 EU Custom ROM based on the Chinese MIUI 12 beta build for 20+ Xiaomi devices. This modified version of Chinese build is applicable in the EU region for Xiaomi fans.

When will MIUI 12 be released?

Xiaomi has announced its next User Interface MIUI 12 on April 27, 2020, in China. As of now, Xiaomi has released MIUI 12 closed beta program for its Chinese users to receive early feedback on the ongoing development. The stable MIUI 12 build will be released in June 2020. In the near future, Xiaomi will bring stable MIUI 12 to global markets also. Initially, the newer/flagship phones will likely receive an MIUI 12 build based on Android 10. Once Google’s stable Android 11 started rolling out to Pixel devices, Xiaomi will also work to roll out MIUI 12 based on Android 11 for a couple of devices.

Here is the list of features of MIUI 12

• Super wallpapers & animated AOD
• New system animations
• Perfect dark mode 2.0
• Improved privacy controls
• Better multitasking
• AI phone assistant
• Classic themes in super quality
• Health tracker

Now, let’s speak at length about how amazing the MIUI 12 is and its unique features

Super wallpapers & animated AOD

Wallpaper is not a thing to mention but MIUI 12 brings a new ‘Super wallpaper’ option where users can set certain planets as their wallpaper. They even can examine and keep any part of a planet as their live wallpaper as well as animated AOD (Always on Display). Currently, Mars and Earth are only available at the moment but we can expect further planets with future updates. The feature is somewhat similar to Google Earth.

New system animations

Users always get attracted to design and animations in a smartphone. Xiaomi came up with its Framework called ‘MIUI Light Cone Motion Effect Architecture’. This framework has two engines viz. Rendering Engine and Physical Engine.

The ‘Rendering Engine’ allows real-world light and shadow, smooth rounded corners, G2 curvature, advanced interface colour mixing, real-time blur, and dynamic rounded corners all over the UI.

Coming to the ‘Physical Engine’, it is responsible for enhanced system animations. The animations are realistic and smooth which offers a satisfying experience. Users can close an app even half-way through opening it. Hence, this brand new animation experience helps in opening or closing apps according to the userspace. Sometimes, while rotating the screen, flashing or ghosting occurs and this is solved by ‘Dynamic Form’ with smoother animations. Almost everything in the system is remastered with exciting animations like the screen rotation, control centre, battery app, and much more.

Perfect dark mode 2.0

Xiaomi’s Dark Mode 2.0 offers standard dark mode features including high colour saturation, automatic brightness, reducing contrast and font adjustments to reduce eye strain during the night. MIUI 11 already has a dark mode but it has left its users wanted for as it feels somewhat unpolished. But with the new MIUI 12, we see a big change as system applications will have a better optimized dark mode.

Improved privacy controls

The privacy in any smartphone is the most important part. Xiaomi kept in mind the security and privacy of users. Whenever an app wants to access location or camera, a message will pop up whether you want to access or deny it. Earlier, Android 10 developer mode had his feature but Xiaomi tweaked it a little and made it a bit more secure. On top of it, the permissions needed by an app will be shown to you and also the phone usage history by the system.

Also an out of the box idea for Android phones, Xiaomi added a feature where the system will provide blank data to any apps that request to access data in MIUI 12. This is a similar idea like that of Apple’s ‘Sign-in with Apple’ feature. The system provides a fake identity to those apps which can be customized by users at any time. This prevents users to share their original info to vicious apps.

Better multitasking

MIUI 12 now brings better multitasking support. Various apps or games still don’t support split-screen features. To solve this, Xiaomi enabled floating apps (picture-in-picture / PiP). This feature will allow users to use apps in float mode. It also comes with gesture features also it can adapt to different usage scenarios.

AI phone assistant

AI phone assistant is another feature that is added to MIUI 12 which is similar to Google screen calls. This feature is specially designed with hearing abilities. Various numbers of AI-generated responses are there to keep the conversation going for hearing or vocal disabilities. According to Xiaomi, the AI has responded to over 4 million calls and helped them in the last 6 months.

Classic themes in super quality

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Xiaomi is re-releasing old generation classic themes in super quality along with new themes and a separate section for AOD (Always on Display) for over 1000+ third-party animated AOD styles.

Health tracker

Xiaomi is also introducing the health app where it will records how much walking, climbing stairs, cycling, running is done. For this, you have to keep the phone in your pocket at all times. It will only consume 1% of the device battery. The app will also monitor your sleep, record your snore as well as the words spoken during dreaming. The app will store the data in the device and not in the cloud for privacy purposes.

List of phones confirmed to receive MIUI 12 update

As you might have noticed, popular devices like Redmi Note 9 Pro, Note 9 Pro Max, Mi A3, Poco F1, Poco X2 etc are missing from the list. The reason behind it is that the above list only applies to China. So, for global Xiaomi users, MIUI 12 supported devices list yet to be announced by the company. If you want to check whether your Xiaomi device will receive Android 11 or not, then find here.

These Xiaomi devices may also get the next MIUI Custom ROM

1. Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
2. Mi 9T Pro
3. Mi 9T
4. Redmi Note 9 Pro
5. Redmi Note 9S
6. Redmi Note 9 Pro Max
7. Redmi Note 8T
8. Redmi Note 7S
9. Poco F1
10. Pocophone F1
11. Poco X2
12. Redmi 8A Dual
13. Redmi Note 5A
14. Redmi Note 5A Prime
15. Redmi Y1
16. Redmi Y2
17. Redmi Y3
18. Mi Max 2
19. Redmi Note 5 Plus
20. Redmi Note 5 Pro
21. Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
22. Xiaomi MI A3
23. Xiaomi Mi A2
24. Xiaomi Mi A1
25. Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
26. Mi 5X
27. Mi Play
28. Mi Note 10
29. Mi Note 10 Pro
30. Mi 8 Pro
31. Mi 8 Lite
32. Redmi 5
33. Redmi 5 Plus
34. Redmi 5A
35. Redmi Note 4
36. Redmi Note 4X

Above, we have added an unofficial list for both Global and Chinese users which shows expected phones that may support the MIUI 12 ROM. These devices were missing from the official list, but, we believe they might be eligible for the next generation MIUI. Once Xiaomi started rolling out stable build you will be able to download MIUI 12 Global ROM from the Community page. As of now, Indian and Global users can only sit back and wait for the official announcement.

Conclusion

Nowadays, most of the smartphone users always want a phone with elegant OS and many features. Even some of the users compromise hardware for a better-looking UI. As we all know software is the soul in a smartphone. A bugless beautiful UI is all a user crave for. After the successful global spread of MIUI 11, Xiaomi has introduced its brand new MIUI 12 Android skin. Currently, Chinese users are getting the taste of the new UI. In India, we will have to wait for a few months to receive the update on our Xiaomi devices.

Follow Xiaomi For More Updates

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube