An all-new look and feel for your phone
Android 12 has been out for a couple of months now, and it seems to be coming to non-Pixel devices faster than ever before. On the heels of Samsung rolling out an update to the Galaxy S21 series last month, OnePlus is the next company to have new software ready to go for its most recent phones. After a couple of beta releases, OxygenOS 12 is ready to go for the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro.
Although the company has yet to post official release notes on its forums, some users have reported getting the update as an OTA on their phones (via XDA Developers). Unsurprisingly, it looks a lot like the Open Beta software OnePlus released two months ago, complete with the company’s new “Burdenless Design” appearance. For anyone who didn’t join the test group, you might be surprised to find that many system tools — settings, theming, the app launcher, and more — are all pulled directly from ColorOS, following the unification of the two platforms earlier this year. It’s a process that’s set to be completed sometime in 2022, following the announcement of the forthcoming OnePlus 10 series.
Screenshots taken from an earlier OxygenOS 12 beta.
As AP’s Karandeep Singh detailed in his hands-on a couple of months ago, these changes aren’t necessarily for the worst. In addition to all of the improvements brought on with Android 12, OnePlus has overhauled its dark mode with various levels, given its Notes app a total makeover, and reconfigured Shelf to be far more helpful than its previous iterations. Scout — the company’s universal search tool previously region-locked to India — is now available to all users globally, as are the Work-Life balance tools.
It looks like the update is only out for phones in India so far, so EU and Global users will have to keep waiting a while longer for official word from OnePlus. For a company that has struggled in the past to deliver timely updates to its phones, it’s great to see new software hitting phones before the end of the year. Of course, with a controversial move to the ColorOS codebase, it’s unclear if current OnePlus users will be excited for the latest upgrade to their phone. Check out the complete list of patch notes available below.
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System
- Optimized desktop icons with improved textures, by using a design inspired by brand-new materials and uniting lights and layers
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Dark mode
- Dark mode now supports three adjustable levels, bringing a more personalized and comfortable user experience
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Shelf
- New additional style options for Cards, making data contents more visual and easier to read
- Newly added Earphone Control Card with Bluetooth earphone one-click adjustment
- Newly added access to OnePlus Scout in Shelf, allowing you to search multiple contents on your phone, including Apps, Settings, Media Data, etc
- Newly added OnePlus Watch Card in Shelf, to easily glance at your health stats
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Work-Life Balance
- Work-Life Balance feature is now available to all users, allowing you to effortlessly switch between Work and Life mode via quick settings
- WLB 2.0 now supports automatic Work/Life mode switching, based on specific locations, Wi-Fi network, and time, also bringing customized App notification profiles according to the personalization
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Gallery
- Gallery now allows you to switch between different layouts with a two-finger pinch gesture, intelligently recognizing the best-quality pictures, and cropping the thumbnail based on the content, making the gallery layout more pleasing Canvas AOD
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Canvas AOD
- Canvas AOD brings you new diverse styles of lines and colors, for a more personalized lock screen experience with inspiring visuals
- Newly added multiple brushes and strokes and support for color adjustment
- Optimized software algorithm and improved face recognition to better identify the features and skin color of different figures
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