OnePlus Shows Us OxygenOS 12 and Its Refreshed UI

OnePlus, as you likely know, is going through some changes at the moment. They are now a sub-brand of OPPO and their software teams are basically one-and-the-same, where they’ll share codebase and (hopefully) pump out updates and more stable builds more often. They’ll also release some sort of new unified OS that will debut next year, but until then, we have OxygenOS 12 to look forward to on the current crop of OnePlus phones.

To kickstart the arrival of this new OxygenOS 12, OnePlus showed off its changes and talked about the “refreshing” UI that’ll first show up on the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. This new Oxygen OS 12 is available now as Open Beta 1 for these two phones.

A forum post described OxygenOS 12 as providing a “more well-rounded experience that streamlines users’ day-to-day work and enhances digital wellbeing.” It talked about how this will give you a “firsthand” look at how OxygenOS has reached another level, thanks to being built off OPPO’s ColorOS codebase, and that the “fully upgraded experience” will be more stable and have improved power-saving capabilities.

The post shared several screenshots from the UI, with changes to Zen Mode, the OnePlus Shelf, the Notes app, and the 3 levels of Dark Mode they’ve built-in, based off community feedback.

Here is a full list of changes coming to this OnePlus 9 OxygenOS 12 Open Beta 1:

• System
  • Optimized desktop icons with improved textures, by using a design inspired by brand-new materials and uniting lights and layers
• Dark mode
  • Dark mode now supports three adjustable levels, bringing a more personalized and comfortable user experience
• 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
• 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
• 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
  • 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

Again, while this is a big deal, having OxygenOS 12 (from Android 12) based off ColorOS codebase, this isn’t the big unified OS we expect to see next year. For now, this will likely be more of the same that we got last year, only with further polish and a UI that looks less and less like the OnePlus of old.

If you are interested in running OxygenOS 12 Open Beta 1 on your OnePlus 9 device, hit up this link for instructions and download links.