Dec 23, 2016 01:02 PM EST By Annie De Vera, UniversityHerald Reporter

Earlier, Xiaomi released its Android Nougat firmware for the Mi 5 smartphone; however, the company also confirmed other handsets that will receive the said OS update through a Weibo post by a company representative.

The upgrade list of smartphones was confirmed by Xiaomi's MiUI Operations Manager on Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging website. In the post, the other Xiaomi handsets which will be updated into the latest Android Nougat update are Xiaomi Mi 4c, Xiaomi 4s, Xiaomi Note, Xiaomi Mi 5s, Xiaomi M Note 2, Xiaomi Mi Mix and Xiaomi Max, NDTV reported.

The upcoming Android Nougat update is what Xiaomi needed for its smartphones since the company has been lagging behind its competitors, namely Samsung, LG, and HTC, who have already announced the updates on their selected models.

The Mi models in the list are 2016 releases with the exception of Mi 4c, which was released on September 2015. The Mi Note handset included on the list could possibly pertain to the newer Mi Note 2 since the enlisted device is already outdated from Xiaomi's update compatibility standards.

According to Xiaomi, the MIUI Android 7.0 Nougat beta testing is already underway. Although the company's representative did not indicate more information on when the company will roll out the update, it could likely be released sometime in the first quarter of 2017.

The update of Android 7.0 Nougat will feature multi-window to run two applications spontaneously, and an inline notification feature to reply to text messages from the notification panel. The said feature is compatible with other apps such as Telegram Messenger, Hike Messenger, and Whats-app, among others.

Along with the Android Nougat update release, consumers could also expect the arrival of Xiaomi's new custom interface MiUI 9. The interface module will reportedly come with better notifications management, redesigned icons, new themes and more shortcuts for ease of usage, Digit has learned.

Also, Xiaomi's MiUI 8-based Android Marshmallow had brought an array of new features including in-call IVR and the ability to group messages and copy OTPs promptly.

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