Xiaomi

Xiaomi doesn’t have plans to let users control bloatware

Andrew Romero | Aug 1 2024 - 8:22 am PT

Recent rumors have circulated regarding a new option on Xiaomi phones that would allow users to toggle ads off. The company denies the existence of that feature, instead offering up a less exciting update.

A lot of phones still come with bloatware, especially when purchased under a carrier. That means installed apps the user didn’t download and ads throughout the phone’s OS. This is a way to make the phone much less expensive because the advertisements are essentially paying part of the bill.

Xiaomi has been responsible for some of this. So, when a rumor began circling that the company would soon allow users to turn ads off completely, some got excited.

However, in a new statement to Android Authority, Xiaomi notes that this rumored ad toggle would not be coming to the company’s device. Xiaomi states that it’s looking to “re-optimize” its business strategy to benefit the user, but an ad toggle isn’t in the cards.

Instead, Xiaomi is promising to reduce pre-installed apps and ads throughout the OS. It references the notion that a toggle wouldn’t be used by enough users. Instead, lowering the amount of bloatware in general would be a better solution.

We are re-optimizing our business strategy in this regard to improve the user experience through reducing pre-installed apps and content display entry pages. Users should be able to see these results quite soon in our upcoming flagships. However, our philosophy is to make changes that are easily accessible and beneficial to all of our users, so we aren’t currently planning to add a toggle that realistically, only a small amount of users would discover and use.

It remains to be seen how long these changes will take and if they’ll be effective for the end user. A change like this could take quite a bit of time to incorporate depending on how much the company plans on cutting back.