According to a post from former MIUI marketing director Huang Longzhon, which was made via China’s Weibo social network, Xiaomi’s MIUI 9 should finally start rolling out to user’s of Xiaomi’s handsets soon. That post was also accompanied by a screenshot of the new firmware running on Xiaomi’s Mi 6, to back up the claim. Specifically, the shot shows that the device is running MIUI version 9.0.2.0, which is reportedly the first stable version the company has prepared for its devices.
The new version of Xiaomi’s custom Android ROM, which runs on the company’s smartphone and tablet offerings and is based on Android 7.0 (Nougat) was first announced back in July, alongside the company’s then-new Mi 5X handset. However, despite releasing plenty of beta versions of the software, the company has still failed to produce a consumer-ready version. Typically, as Longzhon explains, the official release of the software should have followed within just a couple of months. He continued to expand on the underlying issue by conveying that MIUI 9 is a completely new system and that the mass roll-out of an unstable system would likely have been a big problem for the company. Having said that, the company was reportedly shooting for a timeframe ranging between October and early November for the first launch of a stable version of MIUI 9. At the current rate, if the new information turns out to be accurate, the company should be able to hit that target.
Among the features said to be coming as part of MIU 9 is Xiaomi‘s own take on a digital assistant, which it calls Smart Assistant. Smart App Launcher is another feature set to arrive with the new OS, as well as Quick Reply and Notification Management tools. The update will also reportedly bring at least one new security features since it includes facial recognition software that should work with all MIUI 9 compatible devices. Meanwhile, other features, such as split-screen multitasking features, will probably only work with a few devices, though no specific smartphones or tablets were listed. As to which devices will eventually see the update, any devices for which the developer edition has been available should be included in the eventual roll-out.
