MIUI’s Always-On Display update adds new clock designs to the ambient display of Xiaomi and Redmi phones

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Affordable is good but we often associate it with cheap and Xiaomi might be aiming to change that perception, especially since its presence is now fanning out into markets which value quality over functionality. The company has been making some significant changes to its portfolio by bringing more premium products like the Redmi K20 (known as Mi 9T in Europe) with an AMOLED display as well as introducing the mid-ranger Xiaomi CC9 duo with AMOLED displays – even though that comes with a lower resolution on the e-conomical variant out of the two. One of the benefits of AMOLED displays is the allowance for an Ambient/Always-on Display and MIUI already has some cool AOD screens that you can show off.

The Ambient Display feature on MIUI is about to get much cooler with new customization options coming on board. The MIUI beta build is getting a new set of features to configure the always-on display while also adding some new watch faces. XDA Member kacskrz shared the screenshot of the new app with us and this gives us some insight into how the new features work.

The first evident change is a short description for some of the watch options and it gives you some useful information about the purpose and essence of each theme. This is followed by the option to change the color of the text and the icons to be displayed and it will let you choose from a number of solid colors as well as gradients.

Then, there’s apparently a new option to change the size of the text that is to be displayed over the background. Currently, we don’t see a slider to fine-tune the size, so it is most likely to be limited to options such as “big” and “small” for now. Furthermore, there are several new analog watchfaces as well as a left-aligned clock option. In theory, the smaller clock should help you reduce battery consumption slightly.

These new always-on display features are available in MIUI beta but you can download it from the link below on your Xiaomi or Redmi device with an AMOLED display to see it works for you. Do note that it is currently only the alpha build and might malfunction or not work at all like it didn’t on our Redmi K20 Pro review unit. However, if you manage to get it working, do let us know in the comments below.

MIUI Always-on Display 1.2.6.68 (17MB)

Thanks to XDA Member kackskrz for the screenshots