Xiaomi has worked its way up to become one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world in recent years. With Android, the Chinese company uses an operating system that offers a great deal of freedom. That doesn’t suit every developer. Luckily, Google reacted early and pointed out the weaknesses of Xiaomi’s proposal.
Xiaomi phones should no longer be able to unzip APKs
Google and Xiaomi have been working closely together for many years now, including on the Android Open Source Project, where developers can submit ideas, suggestions and change requests. That’s what Xiaomi did and suggested that normal end users are not allowed to unpack APK files on their Android smartphones anymore (Source: 9to5google).
The reason given for this step is that Xiaomi wants to protect privacy. For end users like you, however, this would mean that you would no longer be able to unpack APK files. If you want to install an app or game that is not available in the Google Play Store or causes problems there, you would no longer have the option to do so. That’s exactly how it is on an iPhone, for example. You would only have access to apps and games via the Play Store.
A Google employee then explained the weak point of the idea to Xiaomi. Experienced users would then simply install a freer Android version and could continue to unpack and install APKs. In the end, Xiaomi would have achieved exactly the opposite of what they wanted to achieve. Then the entire smartphone is at risk and not just the one app that you pull from an external source.
Xiaomi has presented an exciting mid-range cell phone:
Xiaomi enters into important cooperation
While the idea of Xiaomi is on the table, at least for the time being, the Chinese company has announced an important cooperation. They will work together with Leica on the next top smartphone. So the Xiaomi 12 Ultra could become a new camera king.