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Chinese Phone Maker Xiaomi Is Pushing Ads In Its Settings App, Users Say
Several Xiaomi smartphone users are reporting that they are seeing ads in the Settings app of MIUI, a fork of the Android operating system that the Chinese phone maker ships on most of its smartphones. According to some users, ads started to appear at various locations -- including the lock screen -- on MIUI earlier this year. In a thread on Reddit over the weekend, a user noted that an ad has started to appear in the Settings app as well. The post, which has gleaned over 5,000 upvotes, sees plenty of users corroborate the claim.
Xiaomi, known for selling inexpensive but high-quality smartphones, is the fourth largest smartphone vendor in the world. Its handsets are immensely popular in emerging markets such as India, where it has been the largest smartphone maker for the last four quarters. In June this year, a senior executive at the company, the name of which means little rice, stated plans to enter the US market next year.
Xiaomi, known for selling inexpensive but high-quality smartphones, is the fourth largest smartphone vendor in the world. Its handsets are immensely popular in emerging markets such as India, where it has been the largest smartphone maker for the last four quarters. In June this year, a senior executive at the company, the name of which means little rice, stated plans to enter the US market next year.
they hit rock Microsoft.
Now it seems Windows 10 has an imitator. Ads delivered by the OS what a "great" invention.
Xiaomi must have razor thing margins since their phones are really cheap for what you get but IMO this is an stupid way to destroy an image that has taken years to create. Microsoft can - somewhat - (see the news about removing the Edge publicity screen when trying to install other browsers) get away with it because Windows has no direct substitutes (meaning you don't have many options if you want to run Windows apps reliably (so I'm discounting Wine)) but Xiaomi has dozens of Android phone manufacturers which make products that can easily substitute Xiaomi's phones.
Ouch, have you filed a bug report with Xiaomi yet?
I'm gonna install LineageOS on any phone, so not really an issue, for me. Still I don't like to support such sleaziness.
Their goal was always to do be like Google. It's why they offered MIUI for free - the more people that used it meant more data collected by Xiaomi for whatever purpose they wanted the data for.
Their business model has always been to give away the hardware and software and sell your information. And MIUI was actually decent, other than the data collection part. It was why people wanted to install it on their Android phones.
Can be turned off.
I'm sure plenty of people went into the settings looking for a way to turn on more advertising. Talk about convenience! What's the fuss about?
I encountered persistent malware in "Settings" on another Android phone (Leagoo M5) -- not clear whether the manufacturer was the culprit or some third-party evil actor (or both?!). Sophos and Avast would find it, clean up, and it would come right back almost immediately. (Malwarebytes BTW never saw anything). Issue was resolved upon updating to a later OS version. In case it helps someone, this is what the AVs reported: Andr/Xgen-OB, com.comona.bac, and /storage/emulated/01.jm/Cool4100_1000_1003_2_1513241684921.xde.apk
I presume this doesn't affect their Android One devices. They have some pretty nice pure Android handsets out just now.
A few weeks ago, I bought a Xaomi Redmi 5 to replace my ageing Note 3 and am pleasantly surprised (I hate depreciation).
The Xaomi had very little crapware and most can be uninstalled. Where I needed to keep my Samsung on charge at work also, I now end the day on 50%. RAM and storage is identical. Graphics render faster. It cost me less than $200. Latest Android is awesome Fingerprint reader is an unexpected bonus. Dual sim or sim+ SD card. No heating that I feel. The screen dims down to barely readable in the dark.
I have yet to see an add.
A notable drawback is that the built-in video player needs permission to access the phone, so I'll download another one from the Play store.