MIUI 12 Review: These are the best features you need to know about

MIUI remains one of the most popular Android skins, with more than 400 million users worldwide. Xiaomi is the number one manufacturer of phones in India, which means that there are more than 100 million MIUI users in India alone, and in recent years the Chinese manufacturer has taken decent steps in optimizing the skin for a global audience .

MIUI 11 was introduced in October 2019, and just six months later, Xiaomi is launching MIUI 12. The update is already available in China and will make its way to global MIUI construction starting on May 19. Although it has only been six months after the launch of MIUI 11, Xiaomi was able to add a series of new features to MIUI 12 to make it stand out. It is clear when using the ROM that Xiaomi focused its attention on optimization and adjusting the general appearance of the user interface. As a result, the animations are smoother, the visuals are more modern, and the interface as a whole seems much more consistent.

I updated the MIUI China ROM on my Mi Mix 3 to test the new features on offer. Because compilation is limited to the Chinese market, there are some settings that may not translate to global compilation. That said, it provides a decent overview of all the new features, so without further ado, let’s take a look at all the new MIUI 12.

Privacy gets a big overhaul

Xiaomi received a lot of criticism for collecting browser data even in incognito mode, and the manufacturer is now implementing a toggle inside its browser to allow users to opt out of data collection. Along with the change, MIUI is getting a number of much-needed privacy and security fixes that make it easier to see which apps have access to the permissions.

The privacy section has two tabs: Statistics and Manage. Stats gives you an easy overview of all the apps that accessed the key permissions for that day, and these include location data, contacts, call history, audio recording, and storage. You can also hit the All applications to get a detailed view of all the applications that started or automatically started in the background. The Manage tab gives you a breakdown of all the apps that have access to a particular permission.

The feature offers a comprehensive account of all the behaviors of the app on your phone and is a great way to see how many apps have accessed key permissions. As always, you get granular access when it comes to allowing permissions access to individual apps, and you can also set alerts so that every time an app accesses your location, takes a photo, or records audio, you’ll receive a notification in the state.

Xiaomi is also adding secure photo sharing options, with the ability to automatically remove location and metadata from images. There is also a “Secure Sharing” watermark that appears when you share photos on WeChat without metadata. This particular feature is likely not to appear in global builds.

New privacy tools go a long way in determining how many applications have access to permissions on your phone. This is a huge change, and it’s great to see that Xiaomi gives users granular control over these features.

Say hello to the control center

One of the new changes to the user interface in MIUI 12 is the addition of a new Control Center. As you may have guessed by the name, it is very similar to how the Control Center works on iOS. It pops up from anywhere on the home screen, and you get a switch grid, brightness slider, and options to toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile data.

The layout and usability are identical to those of iOS, but at least here you have the option to change the layout of the quick setting tiles. Because it takes up a lot of space, notifications are now grouped in their own dashboard. A drop-down menu from the top of the screen now shows the notification tone, and I don’t like the fact that the switches have been disconnected from the notifications. With that said, it is a good idea to access the Control Center, as all it takes is a dropdown gesture from anywhere on the home screen.

The best part of this is that if you are not a fan of the new style, you can easily switch back to the previous MIUI 11 layout from settings. As for incoming notifications, you can choose between the default MIUI system or change to the method prescribed by Google.

Wallpapers that are out of this world

An exciting new feature in MIUI 12 is dynamic wallpapers. Think of these as the live wallpapers you get with the Google Wallpapers app, but more dynamic. You can choose between images of Earth and Mars for live backgrounds, and every time you wake up the screen there is a rotating animation of the corresponding planet.

It is a very good effect and makes unlocking the phone so much more special. I admit I unlocked My Mix 3 multiple times just to see that unlock animation. There is a similar animation once you switch from the lock screen to the home screen, with the background itself changing to terrain-level view. It is one of the most exciting changes in MIUI 12.

Finally there is an app drawer

A continuing criticism of MIUI was that it did not feature an app drawer. With more and more Chinese manufacturers introducing an app drawer into their skins, Xiaomi was the one to stick around. That is no longer the case, because MIUI 12 finally offers an app drawer. Just go to Settings -> Home Screen -> Home Screen configure the app drawer.

The drawer has many similarities to the POCO Launcher, including app categories that automatically classify apps into various categories. You also get app suggestions at the top, a search bar at the bottom, and you can configure custom categories. There is also the option to change the transparency of the background.

You will love all the new animations.

On the subject of animations, there are many clever little animations throughout the interface. The icon packs included with the default MIUI themes feature a cleaner layout, there are new system animations, and the transitions when you close an app to go to the home screen are new, too. All animations are clean and modern, and make the interface much more interactive and playful.

The storage section in the phone settings appears as a cylinder with multi-colored discs highlighting various categories, and the cylinder fills up to show the amount of storage remaining. Similarly, there is a battery bar that dynamically displays the remaining charge level once you go to the battery section, and the battery usage charts are also animated.

New navigation gestures based on Android 10

With MIUI 12, Xiaomi is adopting Google’s prescribed navigation gestures for Android 10. There is a backward gesture when you swipe from the left or right edges of the screen, you need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go to the Home screen, swipe up and hold from the bottom to open the overview panel.

You also have the option to quickly switch between apps by swiping left or right at the bottom of the screen. Gestures should be familiar immediately if you’ve used another Android 10 device, and it’s clear that Google is laying the groundwork for unified gesture navigation across manufacturers. That’s good, because regardless of the phone you choose, you’ll get the same set of navigation gestures.

Do more with floating windows

A new feature in MIUI 12 is floating windows, similar to the ones you get on Samsung phones. You can scale an app to fit a part of the screen, and the best part of this is that the floating window appears over other apps. This is particularly good for things like calculations, and the fact that you can resize windows to your needs makes it much more useful.

You can start a floating window from Floating windows button in the summary panel. You’ll see a list of eligible apps, and you can scale the app to your needs and place it where you want on the screen. To exit a floating window, simply delete the application from the overview panel.

Dark mode is overhauled and there is a new font

The settings page doesn’t seem that crowded, and that’s thanks to a new system font and larger text labels for menus. You can see the difference between MIUI 11 (the phone on the left) and MIUI 12. The font is better for easy reading, and the rounded design also looks more modern.

Dark mode is also receiving an update, and you can now whitelist individual apps that may not work well with dark mode. The programming option is back, and there’s also a lever to automatically adjust contrast based on brightness levels.

My Share is the only file transfer service you need

Xiaomi teamed up with OPPO and Vivo to create a unified file-sharing service, and the results of that collaboration are evident in Mi Share.

My Share is integrated into the settings, and you can access it by going to Settings -> Connection and sharing -> My Share. There is also a My Share tile in the notification bar for easy access to the feature. Mi Share now shows that you can share files between Xiaomi phones and laptops, including Mi Notebook series and RedmiBook, and you can also share it for OPPO, Vivo and Realme phones.

Sharing is as simple as can be. Just select the photo, document, or any other file you want to send, and you’ll see an indentation from My Share that will automatically search for other devices in your vicinity. As soon as you find an eligible device, you will see it highlighted on the page and you can easily share files.

It is a perfect way to transfer files across devices, and the fact that it works on all OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi and Realme phones is a big problem.

A great file manager gets even better

The built-in File Manager in MIUI is one of the best, and it’s getting some new features in MIUI 12. There is a new interface that makes it easy to view recent files, and the grid layout has modern folder icons. But the key change here is a sort option that allows you to organize folders by name, size or creation date.

Like the app drawer, the file manager automatically classifies files into several categories. There are documents, videos, images, music and more. The search function allows you to find files easily, and there is even a built-in FTP server to transfer files.

Use your phone less with focus mode

Like any other manufacturer, Xiaomi is adding controls to curb addiction to smartphones. MIUI 11 had Google’s default digital wellness dashboard, but on MIUI 12 Xiaomi offers its own version of the feature. As with everything else in the interface, there are slick animations and usage graphics that give you an overview of the amount of time you’ve spent the phone, broken down into daily and weekly increments.

There is also the option to set a daily screen time limit, and you can see the number of times you have unlocked your phone and set notifications for uninterrupted use.

But the highlight here is Focus Mode, which allows you to take a break from using the phone. The feature is identical to Zen Mode in OxygenOS, and when it’s enabled, you won’t be able to use any feature on your phone other than the camera and dialer. The default time limits are 30, 60, and 90 minutes, and you also have the ability to set a custom time.

Activity tracking is easy with Xiaomi Health

MIUI 12 already had a built-in activity counter, and is now getting automatic tracking of stairs, cycling, running, and other forms of activity. More interesting still, you are also getting a sleep quality tracker that measures the time and quality of your sleep. It does this by recording the sounds it makes at night (the function records audio in the background). Now if that makes you uncomfortable (because it should), you can always disable the feature.

For Chinese users: Let Xiaomi’s AI answer your calls

Xiaomi’s XiaoAI is limited to China, and at MIUI 12 you are gaining the ability to make calls on your behalf. The feature also automatically transcribes calls, similar to Live Caption on other Android phones, and allows you to choose suggested responses during a conversation.

Much more to come

That was just an early look at all the new features in MIUI 12. The beta will be released for global users starting on May 19, and Xiaomi has mentioned that it will start rolling out the stable update for users in China starting in June. . Obviously, the stable build for the global MIUI 12 ROM will only be available a few months later.

For now, here is the full list of devices that are confirmed to receive the update. Once again, this list is for Xiaomi phones in China, and the MIUI 12 global launch will include more models, including POCO and additional Redmi devices.

MIUI 12 has a lot to offer, in particular around privacy and data security. Visual changes make the interface feel much more modern, and the user interface finally feels cohesive. The beta version still has a lot of bugs, and I still wouldn’t recommend anyone to install it on their daily drivers. But with the global build slated to arrive shortly, you won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on MIUI 12. It’s worth the wait.