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MIUI Android ROM is Being Open Sourced

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MIUI, the stylish ROM which transforms Android into an unrecognizable beast, will be getting open-sourced. That’s right, Chinese company Xiaomi has decided to make the source code for their ROM and applications available to the masses via GitHub, the same git repository that the CyangenMod team uses.

They will be open-sourcing individual applications and the ROM in its entirety, apparently. However, not all code is available at this time. They will likely publish more in the very near future, said MIUI. This is great news for everyone and while we’re not exactly sure what will come of it yet (different variants of MIUI is the logical expectation) we’re glad to see that any developer will be able to get their hands on it. [MIUI via AndroidGuys]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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36 Comments

  1. mo kangs!

  2. This is great news, i moved from stock Nexus one to this with absolutely no regrets.  I know a lot of people with ZTE Blades that look on enviously so hopefully someone can get this squeezed into those phones.  If you’ve not tried this ROM believe me it is much much much more than just an iPhone ROM, if that’s what you think this ROM is, you’ve underestimated it.  Give it a whirl, what have you got to lose!

  3. Took them long enough. They kanged most of the CM source code for their ROM and then closed-source it for the longest time. Very unprofessional and bad for the community. And I don’t believe they ever gave any credit either, which they should considering MIUI is based off of CM.

    1. They very occasionally contributed back, such as with the FM tuner in the Nexus One/HTC Desire. Not often, though.

  4. I loved the SMS app so hopefully we can see that as a seperate app..

    Also the theme engine is nice so hopefully that can get ported to cm9

  5. Mixed feelings.  On one hand, more phones will be supported, they only cover a handful of the more successful handsets now.  On the other hand, it will likely get diluted from what it is now, more people doing their own tweaks.  That could be good or bad, depending on how it runs and what options are opened up.  Time will tell.  As long as the core MIUI group stays together, all is good.

    When I get ready for upgrading, whether or not a phone has MIUI will be a factor so maybe this will be beneficial.

  6. Sweet!!

  7. “MIUI, the stylish ROM which transforms Android into an unrecognizable beast” are u kidding me, it turns it into iOS. seriously why do people like this rom its so iOS just look at the settings icon and the camera they look almost like the iphone one. u guys should be ashamed of urselves 

    1. Because it’s not.  Don’t judge a ROM based upon a default icon appearance. It’s a refined Android without an app drawer, which you can add by running a custom launcher like ADW or Go, or create a folder to do the same thing. iOS isn’t anywhere close to MIUI in either functionality or customization.  The only thing it really has in common with iOS is how smooth and fast it is.

      1. u forgot it also has the look hence the no app drawer

        1. Let me know when you can run launchers on iOS.

        2. No app drawer but all the folders to organize your heart can dream up.


    2. it turns it into iOS.”

      Gotta love this shit.  Have you actually *used iOS or MIUI?

      I’m guessing “No”…because if you had, you’d realize how incredibly stupid that comment is.  MIUI is a more elegant build of Android.  That’s really the only way to describe it.  They took AOSP, redid the frameworks, added a few apps, and a theme engine.

      …Much like CM.  Only MIUI’s stock theme uses white menus as opposed to black. (Hence most folks uninformed ‘iOS!’ rants…)

      1. i dont care how fast it is im not using something thats gonna make my phone look like iOS. also white menus, way to take a step backwards

        1. Pure comic genius. Apparently Reading Comprehension has still not undergone mass adoption.

          “i don’t care how fast it is”

          Good, because I never mentioned speed.

          “im not using something thats gonna make my phone look like iOS. also white menus, way to take a step backwards”

          Way to irrationally hate on something because of your own misinformed ignorance. :)

          1. u should of just bought an iphone and jailbroken it

          2. Another clueless response. I’m impressed.

            Go play in traffic.

          3. With no disrespect intended, have you flashed a miui rom on your phone and actually used it for more than 5 minutes.  You can do anything with this.  but whatever, as the romans used to say, “there are no agreements in matters of taste”.

          4. “go play in traffic”
            haha very original how many times have i seen that.should i also “walk into a fire”

        2. You obviously have never used it, but based your opinions only on pictures of it instead.

          White menu is based upon what theme you use, and there’s over a 100 of them.

    3. No offence, but you are soooo wrong.  It is like the best of android meets the best of iOS, all mixed together.  It is smooth, and fluid, and easily the best outside of a CM rom.   The amount of options this rom gives you is amazing, just about anything you could possibly want to do is an option.   Once I went miui I have never looked back.  Outward appearances are indeed deceiving.

  8. I’ve never quite gotten the appeal of MIUI-ing your Android into a faux iPhone. Maybe this made some sense back when the iPhone was only available on AT&T — if you were on Verizon back then and really, really wanted an iPhone, sticking MIUI on a Samsung phone was a reasonable approximation. Nowadays, though, why not just get an actual iPhone if that’s what you really want, instead of trying to force an Android to be one?

    1. MIUI != iPhone.

      If this is truly what you believe, you can not have actually used them both.

      MIUI is most simply put, a more elegant build of Android.  That is all.

      1. I’ve used MIUI and to deny that MIUI is attempted to mimic the iphone is a joke, they even removed the app drawer in favor of a screens and screens of icons, just like IOS, which is MIUI’s greatest fault.

        I would like MIUI if it still had an app drawer, it’s a very sleek OS but it also takes on some of the iphones faults in trying to mimic it.
        I’m not saying mimicking parts of the iphone is a bad, but in some parts of the OS they went too far imho

        1. John,

          That’s an incredibly simplistic view of it…

          The app drawer is *ONE* feature they share. Saying that this one feature makes it like iOS is like saying a Ford Fiesta and Ferrari are the same because they both have steering wheels. You can probably make a fiesta *look* like a Ferrari if you really wanted to…but you’d know the difference the moment you put it in gear.

          You know MIUI isn’t iOS the moment you start *using* it. It’s better…because it’s Android (my personal preference).

          I am convinced none of you have ever used either iOS or MIUI. They act *nothing* alike. One feature does not iOS make MIUI.

          …as for the “app drawer”, most folks who complain about it in MIUI threads get along just fine *making* one. (put all your icons in one folder, throw it on the dock in the middle…problem solved)

          1. I owned an iphone for a year and a half and ran miui for a month I’m not saying it’s a direct copy of iOS of course it’s not, but the influence of iOS is very strong, why else would they remove the app drawer and make people work around it? doesn’t make sense.

          2. Heh…

            Still the app drawer….  It seems to be the only thing you can find to link the two.  

            I challenge you to find something else, and failing that, to broaden you views a bit.

            If it’s just the lack of an App drawer, I have a news for ya….Android is pretty much the only OS *with* one….

  9. I
    Guessing all the iphone commenters have never actually used MIUI because it nothing like the iPhone. Maybe the theme you saw was iphonish but that’s easily remedied by changing themes..

  10. Love MIUI apps but not really a huge fan of the ROM. Excited to see what this brings.

  11. People call MIUI iOS-ish simply because the icons and really just following the mass instead of having their own opinion. It’s so different from iOS.

    MIUI is what Sense is to AOSP. The core is there, the basic stuff is there, but it improves upon it and differentiates itself.

    Unique about MIUI is:
    – It’s theming abilities.
    – Default app shortcuts at bottom (This is like iOS indeed).
    – Quick settings in notification bar.
    – No app drawer.

     And lots of nifty little built in features like: 
    – Hold home on lockscreen for quick torch
    – Take a screen by pressing home and volume down.
    – Display battery percentage instead of just bar.

    After you add your own apps and widgets, it ends up having the same functions as any other Android phone with it’s own special touch added on top of it.

  12. Miui is a fantastic Rom. It was my Rom of choice on my old HTC Desire. It just looked so damn polished. I don’t think I will be putting it on my Galaxy Nexus as ICS is just so damn good! I hate ios with a passion and for you guys to hate Miui without trying it first is just foolish. Yes it does have some resemblance to ios with the stock theme. You can change anything you want with the themes, giving you the look and feel that you want. Give it a try and see for yourself before you jump to a conclusion. The music app and widget is the one thing I wish I can have on my ICS rom.

  13. This is excellent news!!!

  14. just want that clock widget, that is all

  15. Lol looks likes you got hacked, I see a pic of some girl touching herself instead of a MIUI logo :)

    1. I checked my phone AND laptop browser and it’s just showing MIUI? O_o

  16. Its funny that people say its like ios, I’ve never used mui just because I like my setup but I get that mui is like cm7 but looks like ios. I think it resembles touch wiz at first glance more than ios, but I digress. Mui is its own rom that’s like saying Savaged Zen is a rip off of cm7 just because they’re both aosp roms when indeed they are totally different takes off of an aosp source code.

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