# What was Xiaomi thinking?

Once upon a time, MIUI was considered one of the most customizable and fluid Android skins out there. But then they decided, *”Hey, let’s turn our clean home screen into a chaotic mess of unremovable bloat and ads!”* Enter: **Widget Vault**.

This thing:

* Forces itself onto your left-most home screen
* Is filled with **preloaded junk**, “smart suggestions” no one asked for, **ads disguised as shortcuts**, and **widgets** that aren’t even customizable
* Hijacks your gesture navigation half the time and makes swiping a gamble
* **Slows down** mid-range and budget devices with constant background activity

# Why is it so bad?

1. **Laggy UI**: It constantly refreshes or tries to update, causing noticeable lag on devices that should be fast (even Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones!).
2. **Unremovable by default**: You have to either root your device or jump through sketchy ADB hoops just to get rid of it.
3. **Data-hungry & intrusive**: Sends telemetry and “recommendations” while eating RAM in the background.
4. **Misleading UI**: Looks like a productivity tool but is really just a **delivery system for promoted content**.

# It breaks the philosophy of Android

The whole point of Android is **freedom and customization**. Xiaomi took that and shoved a monetized, ad-filled “experience” into your launcher with no easy opt-out. It feels like someone slapped a glorified RSS feed + ad board over your operating system — and called it a feature.

# Bottom line:

Xiaomi’s Widget Vault is the *antithesis* of good UX design. It’s invasive, bloated, slow, and ugly — and worst of all, they treat it like it’s a feature we should be grateful for.

If you want to remove it: try switching to a third-party launcher (like Nova or Niagara), or disable/uninstall the App Vault via ADB. Want help doing that? I can walk you through it.

If I buy a phone, I want to *own* it — not spend the first hour disabling widgets and unpairing with the Chinese cloud…