Xiaomi explains why the recent MIUI system is unstable

Jiwei.com reported on April 9 that Xiaomi's MIUI official Weibo released a summary of the "MIUI Manager Online" column today, answering many questions that users are concerned about, such as system stability and cloud backup of WeChat chat records. Let's take a look.

Q: Why is the MIUI system so unstable recently? I hope to announce the future plans of the Software and Experience Department for MIUI so that everyone can rest assured.

A: The most important thing for MIUI this year is the basic experience, including stability and fluency. In addition to the Software and Experience Department, we will also work together with various MIUI departments and other related brother departments to optimize. We are currently formulating stricter basic experience standards, conducting layered design for key functions, and establishing a complete online monitoring mechanism.

In addition, the problem of MIUI system instability does exist, and we have been paying close attention to it for a long time. To be precise, we have been paying attention to it since the first version of MIUI 12 was released in May last year.

There are many factors that cause stability issues, including hardware, system software, third-party software and compatibility issues. One of the most important factors is that the major version of MIUI encountered the major version of Android R.

Due to the pandemic last year, the Android R version was released in a hurry and has poor stability. At the same time, several system mechanisms were significantly modified and rewritten, such as the FUSE file mechanism, which restricts applications from directly accessing the file system, causing the speed of reading and writing files to decline. There are also some functions, such as file management, that cannot find WeChat files, etc. There is also a brand-new hardware platform, which also brings new challenges.

After MIUI 12 was released in May last year, it encountered Android R. We immediately organized a special attack on performance, stability, and compatibility. MIUI 12.5 has made great improvements. We are currently adapting the models and gradually releasing them in batches. Please pay attention to the update progress. But it is obviously not enough. Different hardware specifications and performances are different. Software needs to be designed according to the hardware. This requires the classification design of the Android and MIUI systems as a whole, such as the use of system resources, animation effect classification, function design, etc. These are the top priorities of this year's work.

Q: Why are the latest flagship Xiaomi 11Pro and Ultra not equipped with MIUI 12.5, and have to wait until the second batch?

A: Before the release of the mobile phone, production and stocking will start long in advance, so the latest MIUI stable version will be installed as the factory package. Therefore, Xiaomi 11Pro and Xiaomi 11 Ultra are not equipped with MIUI 12.5 stable version. At the same time, which models MIUI is adapted to and the batches of each model cannot be decided by one department. It is necessary to comprehensively consider the adaptation progress of various brother departments of the group and jointly decide on the adaptation plan.

Q: I hope MIUI can give users a good software experience.

A: We are currently systematically sorting out the problems that everyone encounters when using MIUI, and we will develop targeted optimization plans for these problems as soon as possible.

Q: I hope to optimize the problem of crazy rotation of horizontal screen animated wallpaper as soon as possible.

A: Regarding the issue of horizontal screen animated wallpaper stretching, the relevant team has found out the cause and will release a fixed version in the near future.

Q: I hope to solve the problem of the intermittent animation when unlocking to the desktop as soon as possible.

A: We are continuing to follow up on the issue of no animation when unlocking the desktop. We have fixed most of the scenarios. Currently, we have found that there are still two remaining scenarios (screen off in folders or recent tasks), which will be fixed soon. After the fix, we will update the desktop through the App Store to solve this problem without the need for OTA system.

Q: The screen freezes when entering negative one, seriously affecting the user experience?

A: After a cold start with a negative screen, the card loading is stuck. The reason for this problem is to free up more system resources for the application. We are currently trying to optimize the loading animation so that the loading experience can be taken into account without occupying resident resources.

Q: Why do MIUI often have some obvious bugs but no one fixes them?

A: Obvious bugs will definitely be collected, followed up and resolved by someone, but some bugs are more complicated, or may behave differently on different machines, or may require a supplier, so it may take some time to completely resolve them.

Q: I hope the portal can be opened with a small window!

A: This will be arranged, but smoothness and stability are the most important, so be patient.

Q: Why can't I return to the previous level in the upper half of the screen?

A: This is actually the current design. We have reserved some areas for the App to implement its own functions (such as swiping right and returning on the WeChat chat page). At the same time, Google has an official API that allows apps to provide their own operable areas, and we will also follow this specification.

Q: When the app enters the background, the cards are misplaced, overlapped, or missing. When the app returns to the desktop, the icons fly around randomly. Notification pop-ups overlap. Notifications in the notification center are not fully displayed. Small windows are stuck, and the list goes on. I hope this can be resolved soon!

A: Thank you for your feedback. I will report the issues mentioned here to the relevant team for special follow-up. Most of the problems with background cards only occur in the desktop beta version. We will focus on cleaning them up in the near future. Some of the issues mentioned later have been resolved and will be fixed and released online in the near future.

Q: How long will it take for the stacked backend to go online?

A: The most important thing at the moment is fluency and stability, and we will focus our resources on this. We have plans to stack the backend, and we will meet you at the right time.

Q: Can the system directly achieve the immersion of Xiaobaitiao?

A: We are continuously promoting the immersion of the small white bar in system applications, and there has been significant progress. The forced immersion of third-party applications is actually a hack method. The method on the Internet is generally to change the inset height of the small white bar to 0. Apps that are not well adapted do look good, but if it is a tab navigation type application, the tab will overlap with the white bar.

Therefore, forced immersion is not a good solution. It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. If we maintain the whitelist, it will also be a huge waste of energy. We are still discussing this solution internally, and it is quite controversial.

We are also continuing to contact TOP applications through business means, and it is actually quite simple to adapt.

Q: The small window mode is very useful. Can you provide an entrance for active call out in vertical mode?

A: We will optimize the solution to make it easier to call out from small windows.

Q: When unlocking and entering a horizontal screen application, double images will appear in the transition animation.

A: This issue is known to occur only on some machines, and the relevant team is working on fixing it.

Q: When will the MIUI cloud backup WeChat chat history function be launched?

A: It is expected to be launched in May.