Stop Data Collection & Remove Ads on Xiaomi Phones
For starters, MIUI comes with a lot of pre-loaded apps such as Mi Browser, Themes, Security, and more that push not only recommendations and ads but also collect your usage data to personalize advertisements or as they say- to enhance user experience. It is, by default, turned on for all the applications. To disable them, you’ll have to check the settings of each app separately. Now, before we start, note that turning off ‘recommendations’ means stopping ads and spammy notifications while disabling a toggle that’s supposed to collect your ‘usage data’ means that you’re stopping data collection. Read More: 6 Questions We Asked Xiaomi India On Their Privacy Policy, Here’s What They Said
MIUI Ads & Personalized Ad Recommendations
The first step towards an ad-free experience on MIUI is to disable system ads and ad personalization through Settings.
Disable MIUI System Ads
Disable Ad Services and Usage Data Collection
Turn Off Recommendations
Remove Ads & Data Collection in MIUI Apps
While the above steps will disable most of the native advertisements, you still need to turn off ad and data usage settings in each app individually. This will ensure that you don’t get any spammy notifications or app recommendations on your Xiaomi phone. Below, we’ve given a step-by-step guide to disable ads in the pre-loaded apps on MIUI.
1] Mi Security
2] Mi Browser
3] Themes
4] Music Player
5] Cleaner
Note that the recommendations will be enabled again once the app is auto-updated. So, make sure to disable the automatic updates option within the settings.
6] File Manager
7] Mi Downloads
8] Mi Video
The Mi Video app, which is used to play videos in your phone’s gallery, often shows up recommendations for online videos at the end of playback. To disable it, follow the steps below.
Disable HomeScreen Ads in MIUI
In MIUI, swiping left on the home screen reveals the guide page, which shows apps recommendations. To turn it off, open Settings > Home Screen and disable App Vault. You can also disable the “Swipe up on Home screen to open Search” to get rid of annoying Mi browser pop-up if you’ve switched to other browsers.
Disable Lockscreen Ads in MIUI
Furthermore, MIUI also shows story links and ads at the bottom of your lock screen. To disable them, navigate to Settings > LockScreen > Glance for Mi and disable the feature. This will remove pesky lock screen ads on your Redmi phone.
Turn Off Spammy App Notifications
Following the steps above, you’ll have a much cleaner and clutter-free experience on your Xiaomi Redmi phone. However, if you still see some apps sending spammy notifications, all you need to do is- long-press the notification and disable notifications for that app using the given toggle.
Wrapping Up
So this was a detailed guide on how you can stop data collection and remove ads on Xiaomi phones for an ad-free experience. Anyway, what are your thoughts on Xiaomi pushing ads through system apps on its smartphones? Are you comfortable with it? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
