By now you have already heard of HyperOS, a new custom overlay from Xiaomi. If you haven’t, then you are in the right place.
Know about MIUI? If you are a frequent reader of this site then you’ve heard about it countless times. It is the custom take on Android from Xiaomi that has run on its smartphones for ages. Back in the day – over a decade ago – Xiaomi even let us tinker with it on non-Xiaomi devices. MIUI custom ROMs were popular once upon a time. Since its debut in August 2010, MIUI’s user base has grown to rival that of Android, with over a billion users.
Fast forward to today, MIUI, which is what you find on any smartphone from Xiaomi (and its sub-brands), has matured and offered lots of features and customizations that even users of Google’s version of Android don’t get. It has gone from a blatant copycat of Apple’s iOS to a solid alternative to One UI from Samsung, ColorOS from Oppo and others, like Google’s own take on Android which we can see on its Pixel devices. Make no mistake, there’s a difference between that and what should essentially be “stock” Android.
Enter HyperOS. What is it? Why does it exist?
Well, from what we know, HyperOS is the natural evolution of MIUI. Going forward, it is the custom overlay that will adorn Xiaomi devices.
According to Xiaomi when it announced HyperOS back in October, starting with its series 14 devices, which have already been announced in China but will be released to the rest of the world in early 2024, HyperOS will take the place of MIUI. On newer devices from the Chinese device maker, users will now experience HyperOS, no more MIUI.
HyperOS is still based on Android i.e. it is an Android fork. That is to say, HyperOS is the name given to the latest highly customized version of Android meant for Xiaomi devices by Xiaomi.
Other than the need to naturally progress MIUI, given the moves made by competitors like Samsung and others (remember Samsung also ditched TouchWiz and Grace UI a while back for One UI?), HyperOS speaks to the Xiaomi brand’s plans and ambitions for the future.
Xiaomi just announced a car a few hours ago. That means an expansion of its device ecosystem. An ecosystem that’s already rich with just about anything you can imagine. For instance, I have lights from Xiaomi sub-brand Mijia in my living room right now… There are electric bikes, kettles, etc. Those devices, which naturally are classified as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, already had something going for them. That something is Vela, the platform they were built on.
HyperOS combines Vela and MIUI to offer a unified platform, making it easier for developers to build for Xiaomi devices and for Xiaomi to release and maintain its growing device portfolio and centering its efforts on people, homes and cars and aiming to connect tens of billions of people, homes and cars in the years to come.
According to Xiaomi, other than the Xiaomi 14 series of smartphones, users of existing smartphones like some select ones in the preceding Xiaomi 13 series and select ones in the Redmi Note 12 series as well as others, will also be getting a bump up to HyperOS.
As of this month, users of the Poco F5, a smartphone from Xiaomi brand Poco are the first ones to experience HyperOS.
