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Xiaomi is renowned for its high-quality, value-for-money products in the consumer electronics space, especially within the Android ecosystem. Reports suggest that the company is going to discontinue its long-beloved product, MIUI, which has been cherished by millions for the past 13 years. The new operating system set to replace MIUI is likely to be named MiOS, says Digital Chat Station, a well-known tipster.
For those unfamiliar, MIUI is a custom Android skin known for its features and customizability. Xiaomi began as a software company in 2010 with MIUI as the product. It quickly gained popularity, inspiring the company to venture into the Android smartphone market. They successfully raised funds and introduced their own smartphones the following year with the original Mi phone.
Google’s released Android 14 to the public with the new Pixel 8 series. Xiaomi promptly offered the MIUI 14 upgrade based on Android 14 the next day. However, MIUI 14 appears to mark the end of MIUI after years of evolution in the custom Android skin space.
Xiaomi could follow in Huawei’s footsteps… to a degree
After Huawei was banned from using Google’s services, they continued to use Android, an open-source platform. Xiaomi might adopt a similar approach by using Android while developing its own alternatives to Google’s services, as Huawei did.
Although there are currently no restrictions on Xiaomi using Google services, international politics seems to have cast a shadow over its future, prompting brands like Xiaomi to reduce their reliance on overseas technologies.
These collective efforts could be seen as part of a broader strategy rather than isolated actions. Huawei had already been working on reducing its reliance on foreign brands and technologies before the ban, which proved beneficial to the company. Now, Xiaomi appears to be following a similar path.
There are even rumors that MiOS might be an entirely new operating system developed from scratch, rather than using the AOSP. Reports from March this year suggested that Xiaomi had been testing alpha versions of the new system. However, these are still unconfirmed rumors, and Xiaomi has not officially announced anything regarding this matter.
Nevertheless, in the context of the upcoming Xiaomi 14 series, we are likely to see Android with Google services outside China, while some experiments may take place within the home country to develop alternatives to the overseas giant.