Xiaomi sneaks adware onto its phones in the latest update

When using apps and online services that are free, the usual trade off comes in the form of ads, like when you use Google, Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, X, and so on. But when you pay for a service or device, we don’t think it’s completely unreasonable to expect it to be ad-free, right?

Unfortunately for Xiaomi users, it looks like following the update to MIUI 14, users are discovering that adware called Mintnav has been installed on their devices and has essentially hijacked the Chrome browser.

Prior to the update, the default homepage that loads on Chrome is Google with the Google Discover feed below it. Now after the update, users have discovered that the default page has been bombarded with ads, sponsored apps, and other types of unrelated content.

It was initially thought that this was malware, but Xiaomi has since confirmed that this was done intentionally on their side as part of a partnership with Mintnav. Thankfully, this can be reversed. Users can go to the settings in the Chrome app and under Advanced, select Homepage and select the default homepage instead of Mintnav.

This should put things back to the way it was before, and users can also delete the custom Mintnav URL if they prefer. This change affects not just Xiaomi’s phones, but also other phones that are part of Xiaomi’s brand including Redmi and POCO.

Source: MySmartPrice