As MIUI 11 nears, Xiaomi adds a bunch of phones under Mi Pilot program

It is that time of the year when people are eagerly waiting for the release of the next version of Android (don’t forget the guessing game about the name!). Thanks to the public beta program from Google, a number of OEMs are able to test Android Q simultaneously with the Mountain View giant. TBH, the outputs are pretty obvious!

Xiaomi took a pioneering role in the beta initiative, as they included three phones from their product portfolio – Mi 9, Mi MIX 3 5G and Redmi K20 Pro. While Mi 9 also received MIUI infused Android Q, the Chinese OEM was working on the same for Pocophone F1 as well.

I’d like to point out an interesting phenomenon here. Xiaomi shut down the MIUI public beta venture for global models, thus they couldn’t directly recruit volunteers for testing. As a consequence, they named them – wait for it – ‘MIUI Testers’!

That’s not the end. They debuted a new program shortly after the initial closed beta process. Dubbed as ‘Mi Pilot’, the company just renamed the old beta program and appended a number of phones to test a future version of global stable ROM (MIUI 11 anyone?)

As you can see, some of these phones are scheduled to get Android Q update in the coming months. MIUI version increment does not necessarily indicate underlying Android version upgrade, so it is pretty same to assume that Xiaomi is testing the next generation of MIUI on these phones.

Matter of fact, they just expanded the program with a bunch of new phones. Mi Pilot is truly replacing the global beta program for MIUI, as feedback and communications can now be done via integrated feedback platform; not via QQ as experienced in earlier builds.

The full list of supported phones is as follows:

• Redmi K20 Pro
• Redmi K20 (India) / Mi 9T (Global)
• Redmi Note 7/7S
• Redmi Note 7 Pro
• Mi 9
• Mi 9 SE
• Redmi Y3
• Redmi 7
• Mi 8
• Poco F1
• Mi Max 3
• Redmi Note 5 Pro (India) / Redmi Note 5 (Global)
• Redmi Note 5 (India) / Redmi 5 Plus (Global)
• Redmi Note 6 Pro
• Redmi 6A
• Redmi 6
• Mi MIX 2
• Mi MIX 2S
• Mi 8 Lite
• Redmi Y2 (India) / Redmi S2 (Global)

To enroll as a tester, you need submit your Mi account ID, device model, MIUI version (with complete build tag) and email address in this online form. Call it a coincidence, but the reference image in the announcement thread indicates the immediate arrival of Mi 9T Pro (rebranded Redmi K20 Pro).

The program only supports all kind of international stable ROM (generic global, Indian, European and Russian) on the aforementioned phones. So make sure to revert back from (China) beta and/or MIUI derivative (e.g. xiaomi.eu) ROMs before applying.

Judging from the nature and the volume of the initiative, it should be the last minute closed beta testing of MIUI 11. We still don’t know the arrival date of the final stable update, but it shouldn’t be very far anymore.

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