[Updated] Poco F1, Redmi Note 7, Note 8 Pro & more Xiaomi devices will soon get MIUI update to uninstall Mi Browser app

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on August 18, 2020) follows:

Xiaomi has found itself stuck between a rock and a hard place in India because of the Government of India’s crackdown on certain China-based applications that might be misusing user data. The Poco M2 Pro was the first device to be released from Xiaomi post the announcement of the banned apps.

And users quickly noticed that it came pre-installed with certain applications that were banned. In response, Poco penned an open letter to clarify the matter. Not long after, the company stated that users can uninstall all the banned apps that come pre-installed manually.

Further, Xiaomi’s MD — Manu Kumar Jain — also released a statement claiming that a new MIUI 12 update is in the works for devices in India that will come without the banned apps. Within a matter of days, the company officially announced the release of MIUI 12 in India and it also shared its roadmap.

The new update comes without any banned applications in the country. However, the troubles for Xiaomi don’t end just there since the Mi Browser Pro/Mint Browser applications have also been banned. Thus, the pre-installed web browser on all Xiaomi phones has now been rendered unusable.

It has been several days since the ban was made official, however, Xiaomi did not release a statement, until now. The company via its official Xiaomi & MIUI News group on Telegram has shared a notice regarding the Mi Browser Pro app ban. The notice states that Xiaomi will roll out an MIUI update for many devices which will allow users to uninstall the Mi Browser Pro app.

Click/tap to enlarge image:

Further, users are also beginning to see a notice in the Mi Browser Pro application. This notice is the same as the one shared via the Telegram group. We’ve added a screenshot of the same below:

Click/tap to enlarge image:

As you can see the update will be coming for devices such as the Poco F1, Redmi Note 7, Note 8 Pro, Redmi K20 Pro, Poco X2, Poco M2 Pro, and many others. Of course, this update will only arrive for devices in India and not for Xiaomi phones sold in other markets.

As a matter of fact, the company has also disabled the Mi Community app and website in India. So it appears that Xiaomi is doing all it can to comply with the laws in the country. Although, Xiaomi isn’t the only affected Chinese OEM since Realme also released an update to remove the banned Clean Master app from its phones.

As usual, we will continue tracking the situation and will post an update once Xiaomi begins rolling out the MIUI update that allows users to uninstall the Mi Browser Pro app from their devices. Meanwhile, check out our MIUI 12 update tracker to know when it arrives on your device.

It appears that the stable MIUI 12 update has restored the banned Clean Master definition on the Poco X2 in India. Xiaomi/Poco has not yet made any official comment on the matter. For more details, head here.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.