Chinese Phone Maker Xiaomi Is Pushing Ads In Its Settings App, Users Say 29
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 sank so low (Score:5, Funny)
they hit rock Microsoft.
Re: They sank so low (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
they hit rock Microsoft.
I don't think so, Xiaomi has yet to be found collecting information about all the websites you visit and which app you run and for how long while making it impossible to disable. That's hitting rock Microsoft.
More like (Score:1)
Xiaomi the ads...
Definitely a shit company I won't be buying anything from.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Imitating Microsoft (Score:2)
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
Re: only on Chinese/Indian versions? (Score:1)
Ouch, have you filed a bug report with Xiaomi yet?
LineageOS should sort it. (Score:1)
Had ads for years (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Under color of authority (Score:2)
Android One (Score:2)
I presume this doesn't affect their Android One devices. They have some pretty nice pure Android handsets out just now.
Just an anecdote. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs Xoami R (Score:1)
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 i