Xiaomi MIUI 12 update on global ROM replaced App Vault with Google Discover

Here’s the thing, Google is a software company first, and it owns, runs and operates some of the best online platforms and tools we have today.

For the most part, the same integration is brought to the millions of Android smartphones across the world, albeit with some tweaking by the specific device makers.

One super useful Google feature is Google Discover, often added to the left-most page of the home screen of supported devices. However, various Android OEMs insist on using that ‘prime location’ for their own services.

OnePlus does that with its Shelf feature, Xiaomi does that with its App Vault feature, and so on. Often times, these features prove a little inferior compared to Google’s own take.

With that, some OEMs have decided to embrace Google’s Discover feature on their default launchers. We’ve recently seen OnePlus ditch its Shelf feature in favor of Google Discover and even Huawei did this at some point (happier times).

Xiaomi devices pack one of the most feature-packed Android skins we have today. In recent times, we’ve seen the company slowly shift to Google’s apps, at least in the EU and Global ROM, and today, we get to see perhaps one of the more interesting Google integrations we’ve seen in a while.

New reports suggest that Xiaomi devices are now ditching the App Vault feature in favor of Google’s Discover in the stock MIUI Launcher.

To recall, Xiaomi ran this poll back in 2019, asking users whether they’d be interested in having the Google Feed (now Google Discover) on their MIUI launcher and the results were overwhelming.

Before this, users would have to resort to hacky workarounds to get the Google Discover feature on their Xiaomi devices but now, MIUI users using the Global and EU ROMs can now use this feature with their stock launcher.

It remains a little unclear which update brought about this transition but chances are that it came with MIUI 12.

This new development is a sharp contrast from the vibe we got from Xiaomi a few weeks ago when we thought the company was plotting a coup against Google.

We shall continue to keep an eye on this story and update as and when we get more info. You might, therefore, want to stay tuned to our dedicated Xiaomi section for these and more related stories.

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