Xiaomi MIUI 8 with Mi Max coming to India: 8 New Features of the updated UI

By Harshita

| Updated: Wednesday, June 29, 2016, 14:09 [IST]

Xiaomi India is gearing up to launch the Mi Max smartphone along with the MIUI 8 in an event scheduled for June 30 in India. The company introduced its latest native UI, the MIUI 8 ROM last month in China and is now bringing it to India. The new UI is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow version, and brings an array of new features, improvements, and bug fixes.

Xiaomi MIUI 8 with Mi Max coming to India: 8 New Features

The MIUI 8 boasts a redesigned interface which is more in sync with Google's Material Design. Xiaomi now seems to be working on a new split screen multitasking feature, similar to the Android N split screen feature, to let users run two app windows simultaneously. The feature is already available on Samsung Galaxy Note series smartphones and is a part of Apple iOS 9. The feature could be unveiled on June 30, when the company's VP Hugo Barra will be launching the MIUI 8 running on Mi Max smartphone.

Here we take a look at 8 most interesting features of the MIUI 8, which is available in beta for Xiaomi phones including the Mi 5.

New and high-res Wallpaper Carousel:

The wallpaper carousel was introduced with MIUI 7, and became quite popular. Xiaomi MIUI 8 will feature more wallpapers, as it has now increased the catalog of high-quality lock screen wallpapers to offer 12 categories in total, with over 50 media partners.

Revamped gallery app:

For the photography enthusiasts, the new MIUI 8 gets a revamped Gallery app, which is claimed to be 90% more space efficient. It lets users add filters, crop photos, features quick share controls by swiping up, allows doodling on photos, add captions, stickers and music, and more. It allows editing videos with filters, crop and music.

Mi Lanting font:

With the MIUI 8, Xiaomi has introduced a new font called Mi Lanting that offers a better reading experience on mobile devices. However, the feature has been restricted for China users only.

Notes now get grid layout:

The MIUI 8 lets users set a password or fingerprint impression to secure their notes on the phone. The updated Notes app also let users make use of different types of templates for sharing the notes, and allows easy navigation between notes via a grid layout.

Bumped up SMS security:

The new upgraded Xiaomi UI is capable of detecting scam and fraud text messages, and warns users in case of suspicious messages.

Upgraded Scanner app:

Xiaomi has upgraded the scanner app on MIUI 8, which can now be used to scan QR codes for other apps like Wechat and Alipay, can scan barcodes in objects and search for them on ecommerce platforms. They can also snap photos of objects to identify them online on Taobao, solve math problems using the Math mode. Again, this feature is limited to China.

Power Saving Mode:

One of the most important update that the MIUI 8 brings is more efficiency to battery. It saves power by freezing apps running in the background, and limiting chain start up by preventing unessential apps from starting up.

Convert currencies using Calculator App:

The Calculator app in MIUI can now convert currencies. Xiaomi has upgraded the Calculator app to give it make it more useful than being just number calculating tool. It can now give live currency conversion, though for certain currencies, and can convert Celcius to Fahrenheit degree, and more.