> That means you can't clear its app data nor uninstall it, effectively bricking Chrome permanently.

I foresee a "brickrolling" trend.

That's wrong. You can clear both cache and data of a system app on a typical Android device. You just can't uninstall it.

The base .apk is stored on a read-only system partition, so you can't completely get rid of it, but typically you should be able to remove all data of that app, clear its cache, uninstall any updates it downloaded (since those are stored on another partition), and also disable it.

I haven't used any OS by Xiaomi in a while, so I don't know if they changed anything about that.

Though I used to run their MIUI OS on my Samsung Galaxy (S2 or S5, I don't remember) for a while. That one was the opposite of locked down and even shipped pre-rooted, but it's been a long time.

Nope. Chrome's storage lists "0b" for its storage, which causes XiaoMi's OS to grey out the memory panel for the app. You cannot, for whatever reason, clear the app cache in Chrome's case.

However, sure enough, tab instances persist even across killing the app and then force stopping it.

What happens if you disable?

Have you tried closing the browser, reopen it and immediately hit the home button?

I have a Redmi Note 7 and it blocked chrome for a minute, but after closing and reopening it the issue resolved itself. Weird, seems very system dependant.

Tangential... does that smell like built in spying tweaks to anyone else?

Edit - quick googling says Xiaomi have their own browser as default / system, is that what you're referring to?

The government of Lithuania actually did an investigation and found that Xiaomi phones spy on their users and contain a (disabled, probably intended for Chinese market) content filter system in their default browser.

Edit: source (in Dutch): https://www.security.nl/posting/721810/Litouwse+overheid%3A+... Source in Lithuanian: https://kam.lt/lt/naujienos_874/aktualijos_875/ka_daro_isman...

No. Chrome is also installed.

> On XiaoMi phones at least, this is a system app

You mean on Xaiomi OS's (I forget their name).

Miui

Yes, naturally.

I did this and was so furious the phone was bricked i threw my phone out a train window.... Was i too soon?

What are you typing this on?

His wristwatch.