OnePlus ditched the alert slider, and I don’t like its AI replacement

When you think of a OnePlus phone, what do you think of? Well, you probably think of its red charging cable, its black sandstone finish, and, for a while, its Hasselblad-tuned camera setup. One thing you also probably thought of for a long, long time was its iconic alert slider — a three-stop switch to go from ring to silent without ever unlocking your phone.

Then, that alert slider disappeared. No, not on the OnePlus 15 (yet), but on the OnePlus 10T. The change made exactly nobody happy, so OnePlus brought its slider back. Now, though, it’s gone again, this time from the OnePlus 15, making it a much more noticeable problem. In its place sits the Plus Key, a multifunctional button with a new AI-powered journal at its disposal, and I don’t like it one bit.

Here’s why I think OnePlus messed up by copying both Apple and Nothing on the way to its newest feature.

You and I both know the classic bit — sure, you can copy my homework, just don’t make it obvious. Well, OnePlus tried that with Apple, but it forgot about the obvious part. And yes, I know it’s been a few years since Apple actually traded its mute switch for the Action Button, but the internet has a long, long memory. So, I haven’t forgotten, and neither should you.

Honestly, the level to which OnePlus has copied Apple with its Plus Key is beyond what I could have ever imagined. I’ll skip the obvious bits like size and positioning — there are only so many places to put a button — but it’s the overall interaction that baffles me. Apple has a distinct interface for switching between its Action Button features, and OnePlus has simply copied it.

Seriously, it’s all there: the opening animation that shows the side of the phone, the rainbow of colors that cycles through as you switch functions, and even the functions themselves. The thing is, though, I think OnePlus missed the part where nobody I know actually uses the Action Button for anything more than a mute toggle — it’s an overthought solution in search of a problem.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first example of someone copying the iPhone only to find out that there’s a worm inside the Apple. Samsung did it just a few months ago with the Galaxy S25 Edge, which grossly overestimated how much people would like the shortcomings of the iPhone Air. It learned very quickly that change isn’t always for the better and has already scrapped plans for its next Edge device, which makes me hope that there’s still time for OnePlus to pull an about-face.

What is, perhaps, even more confusing to me is the fact that the Plus Key’s main feature — OnePlus’s Mind Space — feels like a copy, too. It’s not from Apple, since we all know copying Apple Intelligence is a step backwards, but rather from OnePlus’s own offshoot, Nothing. Yes, in all ways except for name (and possibly a few of the more useful aspects), I’m pretty certain Mind Space is just Essential Space with a new coat of paint.

What makes me say that? Well, look at the two. They’re both AI-powered, journal-like organizers that capture screenshots and provide answers and recommendations. Even better, they both have hardware buttons (though, as mentioned, I switched my Plus Key back to a mute switch immediately). And, if Mind Space worked as efficiently as Essential Space did, I might not have a problem with it.

However, it doesn’t. It follows some of the basic structure, but doesn’t do nearly as much with it. I do like that Mind Space automatically prompts me to add events to my calendar, which got me to set up both the Philadelphia Marathon and California International Marathon, but everything else I’ve tried to do past that has caused more headaches than expected.

See, it’s easy enough to add memories to collections, with Mind Space occasionally picking out related memories and automatically suggesting sets you might want to combine. That doesn’t always work, though, so I usually find myself building the collections myself. Right now, that’s not a big deal, as there’s not much clutter in my Mind Space, but I could see that becoming cumbersome down the road, mainly because there’s little in the way of organization — it’s chronological or nothing.

The thing about Mind Space that actually annoys me, though, is that everything you do with your collections is manual. If you want more than just a basic summary of each memory — which you can usually glean by reading the screenshot itself — you’ll have to ask questions as if you were chatting with Gemini Live. Unlike Gemini Live, though, if your information isn’t in that screenshot, Mind Space can’t go looking for it.

For example, I asked Mind Space a few basic questions about the Philadelphia Marathon, a race I plan to go to spectate with friends. I quizzed it on how to spectate the race, and it gave me no more insight than the spectator tips I got from Google when I looked up a spectator’s guide in the first place.

Then, when asked about good spots to spectate, it suggested Eakins Oval, which is right at the finish, and told me to look on the marathon website for other ideas — cool, Mind Space, very helpful. I gave my OnePlus 15 one more chance, asking for tips on what to wear, only to be told that it’s smart to wear layers so you can take them off later in the day. It’s not wrong, but I could have guessed that myself when I took a screenshot of the forecast.

And yes, I realize that Mind Space is still in beta, so this probably isn’t the finished product. But, for a software feature that now has a dedicated button, I really thought it would be further along than this. I figured it would feel at least a little polished, not like a little of this and a little of that without many of the smarts I expected from something with a name as brainy as Mind Space.

It could be better, it should be better, but it’s not.