5 Minutes
Your smartphone already answers questions. Xiaomi wants it to do something far more interesting: act.
With the unveiling of an experimental project called Xiaomi miclaw, the company is exploring what happens when an AI assistant stops behaving like a chatbot and starts operating more like a digital operator inside your phone. Instead of simply replying to prompts, miclaw is designed to understand what you want and then carry out the steps required to get it done.
Imagine asking your phone to check something, open an app, pull a piece of data, and trigger a setting—all without you tapping through menus. That’s the idea behind miclaw. The system analyzes a request, determines which tools inside the phone can complete the task, and then executes those steps automatically.
The project is powered by Xiaomi’s in‑house MiMo large language model, but the company isn’t positioning it as just another AI chatbot. The focus is action. Once a user grants permission, miclaw can reach into system functions and supported third‑party apps to carry out commands across the device.
In practical terms, the assistant decides which tools to use and how to use them. If a request involves opening an app, reading system information, or activating a feature, the AI maps the path and performs the sequence itself. Even loosely phrased instructions can be interpreted and translated into concrete actions.
The engine behind Xiaomi's new AI experiment
At the center of miclaw is what Xiaomi describes as an “inference‑execution loop.” The process works in cycles. First the AI analyzes the user’s request. Then it selects an appropriate tool and parameters, performs the action, reviews the result, and repeats the process until the task is completed.
Each step runs asynchronously, meaning the system works in the background without blocking other processes on the phone. In theory, this allows miclaw to orchestrate multiple actions smoothly while the device continues functioning normally.
Xiaomi has also built a memory system into the assistant. Over time, miclaw records important context from previous interactions while compressing older details so it can still recall the original goal behind longer or more complex tasks. The aim is to make repeated actions faster and more accurate.
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The assistant doesn’t stop at the phone itself. Through integration with Xiaomi’s Mi Home platform, miclaw can also interact with smart home devices. With the user’s permission, it can read device status and send commands—turning the phone into a control center for lights, appliances, and other connected hardware.
Xiaomi is also inviting developers into the ecosystem. The platform supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard designed to connect AI systems with external tools. This could allow AI utilities created for other platforms to integrate with miclaw.
Alongside that, Xiaomi is releasing a software development kit that lets third‑party apps declare the capabilities they offer. Once integrated, miclaw can call those functions automatically whenever they’re needed to complete a user request.
For now, though, Xiaomi is keeping expectations in check.
The company describes miclaw as an early test project rather than a finished feature. Reliability, power efficiency, and success rates for complex actions are still being refined. Some tasks may fail, and behavior may occasionally be inconsistent.
Because of that, the rollout is extremely limited. Miclaw is launching as a closed beta, and participation is strictly invitation‑only. Xiaomi also advises testers not to install the experimental software on their primary phones and recommends backing up data before trying it.
Device support is limited as well. The current testing phase includes the Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro, Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leica Edition.
Privacy is another point Xiaomi is emphasizing early. According to the company, interactions with miclaw will not be used to train its AI models. Training relies on publicly available or authorized datasets, while personal commands are processed in real time. Sensitive information is handled locally through what Xiaomi calls edge‑cloud privacy computing.
If the experiment succeeds, miclaw hints at a different future for smartphones—one where the device doesn’t just respond to instructions but quietly handles the work behind them.
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