Why do I think Xiaomi is not working on MiOS?
This article is an English version of the article published originally in Polish on the MIUI Polska website.
With lightning speed, various news portals reported that Xiaomi is allegedly developing a new operating system, which would be called MiOS and replace MIUI in the future. Allegedly, because this rumor has no basis in fact.
How has it started?
The news about the alleged work on alternative software by Xiaomi is nothing new. The first information about the alleged MiOS dates back to 2014; it was to be a system based not on Android but on Mozilla’s Firefox OS. Confirmation that Xiaomi was working on the project was found in the company’s purchase of the domains mios.cn and mios.com.cn. In the end, however, nothing but rumors came of it.
For years, the discussion about this abandoned project froze, until it returned in the form of a joking post on the CoolAPK website (the website rejects attempts from the browser, requiring the app to view content) on November 16, 2022, i.e. during the break between the release of the MIUI 13 beta and MIUI 14. The fact that the alleged screenshot was fabricated was indicated by the description “just for fun, just kidding.” Other graphics posted on the portal at that time indicated that the alleged MiOS would debut with the Xiaomi 13 (which, as we know, ultimately did not happen). The Chinese users laughed, joked, etc., and the discussion ended. The next day, Jin Fan, the person responsible for the development of the MIUI, officially announced MIUI 14, thus ending the speculation about the alleged MiOS.
There was a dead silence around the alleged MiOS. No one took these rumors seriously until last Saturday, March 18, when the Tech & Leaks Zone Telegram channel made the "exclusive," breaking news that Xiaomi works on MiOS, additionally posting the same screenshot that was added to CoolAPK in November (but with its own watermark). Other channels did not verify the channel’s reports and passed on this information, giving it the specter of credibility. Some of the big tech sites also reported that news based on Telegram channel reports, from where the information spread all over the world.
It is worth asking a question here.
Why would MiOS even exist?
The authors of the sensational message claim that it would be the company’s response to possible US restrictions about the license for Google services, i.e., access to the Google Play Store. There’s one problem: in the foreseeable future, Xiaomi is not (or at least nothing seems to indicate that at the moment) at risk of being cut off from Google’s services, unlike another Chinese giant, Huawei (although the MIUI maker had some perturbations in the United States).
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that in the US-Chinese competition for economic and political influence in the world, other manufacturers of smartphones or tablets from the Middle Kingdom, including Xiaomi, could fall victim to the new “Cold War”, and companies must have a plan “B.” Perhaps, therefore, Xiaomi works on a system, but if something was really going on, we would rather receive such news not in the form of an alleged screenshot from a few months ago but something newer. After all, it’s hard to imagine a situation where nothing happens on this topic for 5 months.
Let’s assume, however, that MiOS is actually being created. It, therefore, seems logical to pose another question: why is Xiaomi still developing MIUI? If MiOS was really being created, there would be no need for two overlays (or systems, although MIUI can hardly be considered a completely separate system; after all, it is based on Android, although it strongly interferes with it), and Xiaomi would either announce the replacement of MIUI with the new MiOS or slowly back out of MIUI development (which would have ended up doing the same anyway). Xiaomi not only does not withdraw from MIUI but still releases new phones and tablets based on this overlay and develops it.
One more important point I would like to raise is the availability of a possible MiOS. Where would it be released — only on global markets or also in China (where Google’s services are in most cases redundant because the Chinese people have their own alternatives anyway)? Let’s assume this scenario comes true: MiOS is created, and Xiaomi releases MiOS outside of China. Therefore, in my opinion, a strange situation would arise where the same phone could have two different operating systems: “own” MiOS for global markets and Android-based MIUI in China. Would it be possible to convert such a phone (flash Chinese firmware or Xiaomi.EU, as it can be done at the moment)? What would the software have to be different for this not to be possible?
These and other doubts about the alleged “new” system from Xiaomi, in my opinion, make me rather say that work on an alternative to MIUI is either not in progress at all (the most likely version) or is at a fairly early stage. If it weren’t for this one graphic that someone “remembered” after 5 months, we probably wouldn’t write about MiOS today at all. This just shows how far from reality the vision of replacing MIUI with other software is.