They said “copy the best” and that is exactly what often happens in the smartphone industry with different brands copying one another. Sometimes, it leads to a devastating legal battle.

Xiaomi makes unique products but sometimes gets inspiration from other brands and that is where its Samsung’s Edge panel-like feature which it calls the Smart Toolbox comes in.

The feature which allows you to tuck a number of useful apps for quick access has now been renamed to Sidebar.

The feature in itself is pretty new and was introduced recently in the MiUI weekly beta channel.

As mentioned earlier, it’s a direct clone of Samsung’s Edge Panel which allows you to access a number of preset apps or widgets.

The renaming was made known by MIUI SYSTEM UPDATES Telegram channel, ‘Smart toolbox’.

With the new MiUI Security app update V5.8.1-211123, you’ll be getting the rename.

While there aren’t so many additions in terms of features on the new update, the software changelog has it that the update includes a number of known bug fixes as well as a general performance improvement.

Unlike Samsung’s Edge apps, the MiUI Sidebar is currently accessible while playing games or watching videos. It’s basically there when you’re doing something that requires the entire screen. Instead of minimizing what you’re doing, the Sidebar can be your quick portal to your most-used apps in order to get things done. Something like that even exists currently on the OPPO’s Color OS 12.