A few months ago, OnePlus and Oppo announced that they were merging the codebase of their custom Android skins, OxygenOS and ColorOS respectively. This would reduce the burden on the developers, and streamline the process. Many OnePlus fans raised their eyebrows at the time.
OnePlus' co-founder Pete Lau downplayed the concerns, and re-assured users that this move was beneficial for both brands. He had also clarified and that the OnePlus phones sold globally will continue to run on OxygenOS, while the company's devices sold in China would shift to ColorOS. The ColorOS 12 web page (in China) lists several OnePlus devices as eligible for the upcoming firmware.
Well, it turns out the fans who were worried about the merger, weren't paranoid after all. Lau took to the company's forums today, to announce some developments. The post talks about the product strategy and pricing, and how the company is focusing on the camera experience on its devices. But more importantly, one of the things that it addresses is the future of OxygenOS. It turns out that the stock-like operating system that drew tech enthusiasts toward the brand, is indeed changing, for better or worse.
OnePlus' next flagship phone, which will be released in 2022, will be the first to ship with the new operating system. This probably means the rumored OnePlus 9T won't be released this year, though that can be attributed to the chip shortage that is affecting the production of electronic devices Worldwide.
But there is something else that's interesting here, OnePlus says it will roll out a major Android update in 2022, with the new integrated OS. So, devices that are currently on OxygenOS will migrate to the new Android skin. A release date for the update has not been revealed.
But if the brand has already merged the development teams as the announcement indicates, it seems unlikely that an OxygenOS update with Android 12 will ship first, followed by another update for the new integrated OS. That seems like a lot of hassle for the developers, and would be in contrast with easing the burden on the OS team. As a matter of fact, the previous announcement confirms that the new OS will arrive with Android 12.
So, what's the name of the new integrated OS? What are the features we can expect in it? OnePlus hasn't revealed any of those details yet. All that the statement says is that the new OS will be "fast and smooth, clean and lightweight, reliable, smart and feature-rich". The wording is cryptic, so we can't say for sure what it would be. In the best case scenario, we could be looking at a stock-like experience with OxygenOS with some additional features added on top. Hopefully, it won't have ads or bloatware. Let's wait and see how this one turns out to be.
On the bright side, OnePlus says it will still allow users to unlock the bootloader, so you could flash a custom ROM if you don't like the new OS.
Are you a OnePlus user? How do you feel about the change?
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