Xiaomi will no longer develop MIUI betas for budget Redmi smartphones

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Xiaomi actively engages in developing its custom Android skin MIUI, often bringing new features irrespective of the Android version since MIUI’s update cycle differs from Android’s. New features often make their way from the closed beta to the open beta and then to the stable channel and users’ feedback during beta plays a pivotal role in bringing new functionality to MIUI. To streamline development, Xiaomi has now announced a new plan to focus on beta ROMs only for new smartphones and is taking budget devices out of the program.

Xiaomi has announced that July 5th onwards, it will now be limiting MIUI betas to smartphones which are less than a year old. Smartphones that turn a year old will automatically be withdrawn from beta testing and will thereupon only receive updates to the stable version of MIUI. This decision will not impact the development of stable versions of MIUI for Xiaomi and Redmi devices.

Apart from this, Xiaomi has also decided upon suspending MIUI betas for entry-level Redmi smartphones. While there was no clarification about which devices may be affected by the decision, we expect this may entail the likes of the recently launched Redmi 7A or the Redmi 7. However, Xiaomi is offering an assurance that the stable updates for the entry-level smartphones will not be affected.

The announcement can be treated as a follow-up to another notification from Xiaomi in April about the cancellation of Android Pie updates for 2018’s entry-level smartphones, the Redmi 6 and the Redmi 6A. The company cited a lack of beta testers for this decision. The latest announcement could be relevant for similar reasons.

At the same time, Redmi is foraying into the segment of affordable flagships like the Redmi K20 series and this is why the company might want to withdraw some of its attention from smartphones that generate lesser value.

Notably, these changes in MIUI beta update policy apply to Redmi devices in China but we’re yet to learn about similar developments for other regions or global variants of Redmi devices.

Source: MIUI Forums