Xiaomi’s latest MIUI 10 Beta brings a redesigned settings and new password manager

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Xiaomi’s Beta branch sees continuous improvements by the company, as it serves as the testing ground for any and all upcoming features to MIUI. Xiaomi recently took the decision to end the Global Beta branch for all of its devices with effect from July 1, but the China Beta branch continues to exist, giving us the opportunity to see what features are coming to MIUI. With MIUI 10 China Beta 9.7.1, Xiaomi is adding in a redesigned settings interface, as well as a new password manager.

The latest MIUI 10 China Beta was released on July 1, 2019. This build with version number 9.7.1 comes with a new settings interface, which could possibly be in preparation for MIUI 11.

The stand out change is the recommendation that now appears, prompting users to explore a related setting. This is useful for MIUI especially, since the UX comes with a lot of settings and customizations and not every setting is immediately discoverable. Gently prompting users to explore more settings appears to be a good move, prima facie.

This update also adds in a new password manager feature, complete with autofill functionality. Autofill API was added in Android 8.0 Oreo, so it comes as no surprise that MIUI’s in-built password manager would come with this functionality.

The built-in password manager would seemingly make it very convenient for users who predominantly use a Xiaomi device for their computing needs. While we would still recommend open-source password managers such as KeePass thanks to its simplicity and ease-of-use, even a service as simple as KeePass could appear daunting to average consumers. Most of Xiaomi’s sales comes in the budget and early mid ranges, especially in countries like India, and it is unlikely that the average consumer in those segments would be even aware about the concept of a password manager, leave alone use one. In that context, Xiaomi’s intended feature makes quite some sense, as it would encourage these users to not set the same password for every service that they use. Do keep in mind that the screenshots above are from the early stages of the functionality, so it remains to be seen how Xiaomi further develops this feature.

Both the features mentioned above are present on the latest Chinese Beta for MIUI. Users outside of China will have to wait a while to experience the same. Since neither of these features require specialized hardware, unlike 3D Air Gestures, they have a much higher probability of being made available to most of Xiaomi’s supported devices.

Special thanks to XDA Member kacskrz for the screenshots.