MIUI beta hints Xiaomi is working on reverse wireless charging for a future smartphone

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Wireless charging is a feature that has had its ups and downs in popularity over the years, but it looks like its definitely here to stay. Charging wirelessly is no longer as slow as it used to be, with some phones like the Xiaomi Mi 9 supporting 20W fast wireless charging. A few smartphones even pack bidirectional wireless charging coils so they can wirelessly charge accessories or other smartphones. Late last year, Huawei became the first brand to ship a smartphone with reverse wireless charging (as seen in the featured image above). Samsung then followed earlier this year with its PowerShare feature on the Galaxy S10 series, and we’ve now seen evidence in MIUI beta builds that Xiaomi may be next. The upcoming Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 is the most likely candidate for this new feature, but we can’t confirm that yet.

Could the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 support Reverse Wireless Charging?

Our ever-reliable tipster, XDA Junior Member kackskrz from the Xiaomi.EU custom MIUI team, tipped us off about the addition of reverse wireless charging strings in recent MIUI betas. The strings strongly suggest that Xiaomi is working on a setting to enable reverse wireless charging. The description for the setting states that the user may “use [their] phone to charge other devices wirelessly.” Furthermore, the feature will be “turned off automatically if charging doesn’t start within 90 seconds” in order to reduce unwanted power drain.

Currently, the only Xiaomi smartphones with wireless charging support are the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, and Xiaomi Mi 9, but none of these devices support wirelessly charging other devices. 91Mobiles cites a recent comment by Xiaomi Product Director Wang Teng Thomas to claim that the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 will support wireless charging that’s even faster than on the Xiaomi Mi 9. Since the Mi Mix 4 is expected to be a flagship product and have wireless charging support, there’s a good chance this reverse wireless charging feature that Xiaomi is developing will end up on the new device. We’ve been tracking a Xiaomi flagship product code-named “hercules” for a few months, and it’s likely to end up as the Mi Mix 4. However, we have to yet to find evidence linking the “hercules” product with this in-development reverse wireless charging feature, so we can’t say for sure whether the Mi Mix 4 will support it.

Since Xiaomi ended all MIUI Global beta builds at the end of June, these strings can only be found if you unpack recent MIUI China beta builds. We’ll keep an eye out on future MIUI beta builds to see if development of this feature progresses.

Featured image: Huawei Mate 20 Pro wirelessly charging the Freebuds 2 Pro earbuds.

Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.