Amidst the lockdown, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer was able to organize an online event for the launch of their latest device, the Mi 10 Youth Edition. However, that was not the only takeaway from the event today. Ever since MIUI 11 based on Android 10 was launched, the community has been asking for MIUI 12 right away. And, well, Xiaomi answered them with an early beta of the same. MIUI 12 comes with an ample number of new features, new animations, and whatnot. Let’s take a look at what it has to offer.
With every update, MIUI tries to change things around with the overall design, the look and animations as well. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Youth Edition will be the first device to come with MIUI 12 out of the box.
Super Wallpapers :
This time around, the company has gone out and beyond with its wallpaper inventory. I mean that, literally. Xiaomi has introduced ‘Super Wallpapers’ wherein, they’ve created high-precision animated 3D models of Earth and Mars. Users can use these wallpapers on both the lock screen as well as the home screen. Also, if the dark mode is enabled, the wallpaper (planet) also turns to night time which just looks mesmerizing.
Dark Mode 2.0 :
The latest revamp of dark mode on MIUI 12 will bring wallpaper dimming. The wallpaper set by you will dim based on outdoor conditions. We’ve seen this previously on Color OS 7, you can check out our video of the same here. Fonts will also be affected by dark mode, with the contrast being adjusted depending on dark or light mode for ease on the user’s eye.
New Animations :
Xiaomi has been working on animations and the transitions, be it for opening apps or switching between apps, the company is aiming for seamless movement between them. As you can see in the GIFs below, switching from vertical to horizontal also looks quite smooth. Almost everything has been tweaked around with, even opening and closing apps look quite decent. The charging animation has also been messed around with and you can see the results below. Even the notification bar icons have changed and this time around, they give a little bouncy feedback with eye-pleasing animations which shows how much work the company has put in, in terms of design.
Navigation Gestures :
iOS started with the navigation gestures with their iPhone X which was then picked up by a lot of OEMs. A couple of months later, Android 10 was launched with this navigation gesture and now, Xiaomi is also tweaking around with them and has implemented it on MIUI 12.
New Always on Display :
Xiaomi already had a ton of AOD designs and now, MIUI 12 has brought in some more eye-catchy designs to this section. This time, the users will be able to choose what information they want to be displayed on the AOD setup. Also, they are said to be adding battery indicator info as well which is a plus.
AODs on MIUI 12 is said to support MAML format. This basically means that developers can implement non-linear animations based on weather, time, location and etc. MIUI 12 will also include around 1000 third party animations out of the box which will give users a lot of options to choose from.
AI Calling :
Xiao AI, the assistant Xiaomi, has been training to answer calls for the past few years. The company has revealed that Xiao AI has been able to answer around 4 million calls when they tested it with beta users and now, they are officially launching it. Users will be able to change their language settings and also customize manual and automatic call switching profiles. As of now, it is not sure whether this feature will be available to users out of China.
New Privacy Settings :
Xiaomi has introduced some new privacy features called Flare, Barbed Wire and also, Mask System. Breaking down these systems, Flare keeps a log of all the permissions and information and it sends out a notification to the user whenever a particular app is trying to use your phone’s camera, microphone, or the location in different banner colors. Yellow for the camera, red for the microphone, and blue for location.
Barbed wire, on the other hand, is similar to the location permission feature on Android 10 wherein the user can give access to an app once, all the time or only while using.
Mask System prevents untrusted apps from accessing sensitive information such as contacts, call logs IMEI, SMS/MMS, etc. These, in my opinion, are very crucial and very smartly put into the android skin to avoid data breaches.
MIUI 12 Rollout Schedule and Compatible Devices :
As mentioned earlier, the Mi 10 Youth Edition will be the first device to come with MIUI 12 out of the box. The company will be opening up beta access internally and it is said that the update will be available to these models. The beta enrollments start from today 27th April at 6 PM Beijing time.
