Android 13 official for OnePlus smartphones

OnePlus faced a backlash for dropping the ball on the software interface by integrating the software database with Oppo ColorOS. Subsequent software versions were riddled with bugs, and even the stable update – which infected many OnePlus devices including the OnePlus 9 series – seemed like an afterthought with many inconsistencies. Shortly thereafter, the company decided to undo some changes, stating that OxygenOS 13 would correct the error that had been made, and revert back to what the OxygenOS interface was in the past. Well, the update that’s supposed to offer a “familiar OxygenOS experience” is finally here as part of the company’s Open Beta initiative. That’s right, I downloaded OxygenOS 13 Open Beta based on Android 13 on OnePlus 10 Pro, and here are some of the first things I noticed:

New and redesigned OxygenOS 13 features

Here are some of the new features and redesigned UI elements that you can expect to see on OxygenOS 13:

New materials in your colors

Google’s new and improved color palette can now be seen in full effect on OxygenOS 13. There are plenty of colors for the system to choose from and they are created dynamically by your wallpaper. OxygenOS 13 will now give you an option to let the phone choose colors automatically based on the wallpaper you set. Notice how the quick setup icons change their colors based on the background used in the screenshots above? This also applies to apps that support Material You, so they will change their colors based on the theme you’re currently running on your phone. The new and improved Google Material You is one of my favorite features because it provides a consistent look and feel across the phone user interface.

Lots of Oppo’s features and design elements take center stage

This may not come as a surprise but OxygenOS 13 is turning the spotlight on a lot of Oppo’s features. These are the ones that you might have usually seen on Oppo phones in the past. I recently reviewed the Oppo Reno 8 Pro, so that I could get to know these features right away. I’m referring to things like O-Haptics, Omoji, etc. OxygenOS puts a lot of these features front and center to make sure you don’t miss out. You can see an instance of this in the Settings app below:

Umoji

Omoji, as the name suggests, is similar to Apple’s Memoji. You can create and use your own Omoji the same way you use Apple Memojis. On Oppo’s defense, it works very well and I can see a lot of people already using this. Personally, I like Oppo’s O-Haptics feature better than this one, so more on that below.

O-touch

O-Haptics technology will enhance your experience of using the device with great haptic feedback. This is already part of OxygenOS 12, but you do get an additional setting that lets you adjust the feel of the touches. OxugenOS 13 has been tweaked to make you tactile in more places across the user interface now, and the satisfaction and reassurance of getting feedback from the phone. Swiping up or down inside the OnePlus Shelf, for example, turns on haptic feedback, which isn’t currently available on the OnePlus 10T running OxygenOS 12.

Oppo’s Kids Space, Smart Sidebar, and Simple Mode

Also mentioned in the changelog are some new modes such as Children’s Space. You can find it with two other modes under the special features option inside Settings (Settings > Special Features). These are new in OxygenOS 13, but are already available on ColorOS 12.1.

Aquamorphic design

OxygenOS 13 turns into what OnePlus calls an “Aquamorphic design.” The aesthetics of the user interface have changed drastically compared to OxygenOS 12. Lots of apps, settings page, menus, etc. look a lot different. Simply put, it looks a lot like ColorOS now. Here’s the clock app as seen in OxygenOS 12, OxygenOS 13, and ColorOS 12.1 alongside. I’ve also added a quick setup screenshot below to show how the quick setup icons in OxygenOS 13 look like the ones in ColorOS 12. You’re bound to see a lot of similarities between the two programs, so you probably won’t like it if you’re not a fan of the ColorOS look.

Quick settings icons:

Changes to notifications

If you can bypass the huge Quick Settings panel that takes up nearly half of the notification shade, you’ll see that OxygenOS 13 has tweaked notifications quite a bit compared to the previous version. Notification cards from different apps are now separated with some space in between, and there’s also a huge “X” button at the bottom to clear them instead of the Clear All button as seen in OxygenOS 12.

OnePlus Rack

The OnePlus Shelf remains pretty much the same as in OxygenOS 13, and yes, it still opens as a standalone app rather than just an overlay. The “Never Settle” logo at the top has been replaced with calendar events, and there’s no search bar either.

View the expanded folder

You also get some thoughtful extras with OxygenOS 13, like an expanded folder view that lets you open an app in a maximized folder with just one click instead of having to enter the folder itself.

Extended folder vs. normal folder in OxygenOS 13

More options to customize the Always-On display on OxygenOS 13

If you are someone who needs more customization options to tweak the Always-On screen on your phone, OxygenOS 13 has some great tools for you. In addition to adding your Omoji to the always-on display, you can also use the new “Canvas” feature to assign and use a silhouette of any image of your choice. I was able to play with this feature for a while and it worked as intended. OxygenOS 12, in case you were wondering, does not have dedicated options for customizing AOD; It only has preset options to choose from.

Changes to screenshot editing tool

OxygenOS 13 adds more codecs for screenshot editing. It should be noted that you also get the chat screenshot pixel feature in which the system can automatically identify and crop profile pictures and display names in chat screenshot to protect your privacy. These features are missing from the previous software and the phone did not allow me to take a screenshot inside this page on my OnePlus 10T running OxygenOS 12 firmware.

OxygenOS 13 Open Beta: Still ColorOS in all but the name

While OnePlus has indicated that it will roll back some of the changes made with ColorOS, OxygenOS 13 still uses ColorOS as a basis. The new software is packed with many ColorOS features, which you may or may not like depending on your preference. ColorOS from Oppo has evolved a lot over the years and is still one of the best Android skins on the market, in my opinion. So the fact that OxygenOS 13 is building on it to add more features is an exciting proposition.

However, it’s not the “familiar OxygenOS experience” that OnePlus promised us a few months ago. It’s not the clean, light UI with the drastic changes you were expecting, which I’m very disappointed about. The ColorOS-OxygenOS merger is still in effect, and perhaps no return to the OxygenOS experience that propelled OnePlus into the mainstream. OnePlus’ OxygenOS is just ColorOS with a different name now.

Is this a bad thing? Well, yes if you don’t like what ColorOS brings to the table. But, like me, if you don’t mind ColorOS for all its features, there’s a lot to look forward to. This version of OxygenOS 13, of course, isn’t the final release, and there’s plenty of room for OnePlus to improve it and make changes to set its software apart from the Oppo ColorOS before it even started rolling it out. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for future builds to see if anything changes.

In the meantime, you can try out OxygenOS 13 on your OnePlus 10 Pro by downloading the side update. You can head over to our OxygenOS 13 download page to check out the official changelog and get links to download the update for your device. Needless to say, you may encounter some bugs in this beta version, and some third-party apps may not work as intended.

Well, these were some of the new features and changes that I was able to discover during my short time using OxygenOS 13 beta. I will be using this new software extensively over the next few days to see if I can find more changes. I’d like to mention that a lot of the new OxygenOS 13 features mentioned in the launch, including Spotify integration with AOD, and India’s own Swiggy/Zomato integration with AOD are still missing. I expect these features to arrive in future builds as they are part of what OnePlus has promised to ship with its new software.

Now that you’ve got a taste of OxygenOS 13, we’d love to know what you think of the software. Let us know your thoughts on the architecture of OxygenOS 13 and the changes it brings to the table by dropping a line in the comments below.