So OxygenOS 13, based on Android 13, not only delivers Google’s usual five strokenly delectable features, but it also serves up a tasty buffet of bonus bits. And it’s all crafted in collaboration with OnePlus fans who provided tonnes of feedback before and during the development process.
Now, I’ve had my mitts all over the rollout version of OxygenOS 13, and I also had the chance to chat with top OnePlus software boffins Gary and Crayon, who are not only devilishly handsome but also thoroughly nice looks. So slap on your speedos and get ready for an invigorating swim through the Aquamorphic oceans of OxygenOS 13.
OxygenOS 13 Rollout Phones
So, the first obvious question for any OnePlus fun is, will my blower actually be getting the OxygenOS 13 update? Well, the good news there is it’s come into a wide range of devices, including more affordable blowers and older handsets too. There are a bunch of handsets so far, which should be updated from the end of 2022 through into early 2023.
Aquamorphic Design
Now, OnePlus appreciates the benefits of stocking Androids. The general structure hasn’t been tampered with and all of the best Google bits are still crammed in there.
Wallpaper color picking, nice enhanced privacy tools, tasty updated notifications panel, arousing OxygenOs 13 essentially takes that stock Android foundation and then adds a little OnePlus flourish to make it stand out. So, for instance, that Aquamorphic design language changes the overall look and feel of Android in many subtle ways. The focus here is natural vibes rather than mechanical design.
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We’re talking about vivid colors, soothing fonts, soft sounds, minimalist icons, and rounded shapes. It’s all rather common. It makes me want to fix a common mile tea, put my feet up and say, Boss, to work. Basically, that Aquamorphic design delivers a consistent experience across OnePlus’s BakedIn apps. While the relaxing vibe feels like a natural extension of the mental well-being focus from earlier Oxygen OS versions.
A lot of the visual changes are subtle, but OnePlus gathers a lot of user feedback to ensure that the updates are well received. Here’s War Gritmate Creon explaining how the funds are tapped up for advice on where Oxygen OS should go next.
So, how do we collect user feedback? We usually run a lot of user testing, and concept testing. We recruit a user from different regions, for example, India, North America, and Europe, and then we compile everyone’s feedback, and then we think, oh, based on this insight, we need to build out the future.
Always On Display
Another area that OnePlus concentrated on for OxygenOs 13 is those always on displays, an area where they already ruled over many rivals. One of the big new additions is the homeland, always on display. An animated effort focusing on a family of polar bears or penguins, or a bit of lovely coral action, depending on the time of the day. You’ll see those adorable beasties indulgent in different activities, be it eating, sleeping, or generally just buggering about.
However, the animations are also triggered by the daily temperature in your area. So as things get warmer, those baby penguins and polar bears will kind of disappear. Sounds suitably morbid, but it’s Crayon’s favorite feature in OxygenOS 13. And here’s more from the big man on how it came to be.
For example Hong MLD. That’s also from our user research. We find out users start to care more and more about environmental stuff or the climate impact. So we think about basically since we should build something to serve their needs even though I’m using it every day, I’m an animal lover. And before our team is kind of brainstormed how we have a more engaging way to tell the story about global warming or climate impact.
This polar bear is kind of the penguin they are losing their family because we don’t save energy or maybe we can walk instead of driving a car or something like this how we really can contribute ourselves to this earth?
And that’s not the only new addition when it comes to Always On Display shenanigans in OxygenOS 13 because square up near the top you’ve got this contextual info section. Now if you’re a Spotify user you’ll be able to use this to bring full One widget style controls to your Always on Display. You’ll be able to check out your album and track info as your stream and tune as well as control the playback and also tap into your personal playlists right there on the Always on Display.
And OnePlus is continuing to work on this tech to improve it for future updates, we still have some details we need to improve like the power consumption. Like the feature I mentioned, eye tracking is not doing very well, so those detailed experiences will keep polishing them.
And I also had to ask will other music services other than Spotify be supported in the future.
Yeah, I think right now, most important we want to do the best experience right now, so we focus on Spotify. But in the future, we may add some music providers to this project.
Privacy And Security
Now, security is a key feature as always. And another area where OnePlus has built upon the strong foundations of Android 13. So for instance, there’s a fresh new Auto pixelate feature that kicks in when you share a screenshot on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. And this can mask any personal details you might have accidentally left in there to avoid any unexpected incrimination. Meanwhile, that private safe tool is now more secure in version 2.0 with Auto encryption to keep your privates when and truly private. And gamers haven’t been forgotten about either.
The OxygenOS 13 GPA 4.0 gaming tool loads games even faster than before. And serves up the usual fantastic selection of features, including multiple performance modes to suit whatever game you are playing. So you can either max out the power or conserve energy if you’re just smashing out a whirl or whatever.
Now, as usual, a large portion of those OxygenOS 13 improvements are hidden away beneath the surface, just helping everything to run as smoothly as possible. So for instance, OnePlus has once again improved that AI system booster, so it’s even more clever when it comes to learning your smartphone habits and then getting things ready for when you need them.
And as a result of that, app startup is apparently 10% faster now. And of course, OnePlus already offers several years of OS and security updates with every new phone. But for selected upcoming devices, OnePlus is going to be taking things even further with a promise of four major Android OS updates and five years of security updates. That’s more than pretty much any other rivals out there. And as Gary explained, this wasn’t particularly easy to achieve.
That is quite a big commitment that internally we need to do a lot of changing to do it. So first of all, we need to refactor and hold our software engineering how to make the maintenance easier, because maintenance for four years, or five years is not very easy. So first of all is the software architecture for OxygenOS 13. We keep doing that for a couple of years, so right now we can have some improvement for that.
And I think in this part we keep hearing people’s feedback. We are listening, right? So we know users, don’t want to phone without appropriate software maintenance. So I think we will keep looking for better software update maintenance in the future.
So OxygenOS 13 may be basically done and dusted, but these fellas don’t ever seem to rest. Gary told us that OxygenOS version 13.1 is already underway and we’ll see it in action in the first half of 2023, complete with even more performance tuning and privacy updates. And of course, they’re already hard at work on OxygenOS 14. So come back in about 12 months’ time and you’ll see me banging on about that one. And that right there in a tasty little nutshell is OxygenOS 13. Have a good one. Love you.
