As a part of its merger with Oppo last year, OnePlus announced that it would be unifying its codebase and work on a new unified operating system that would run on devices from both companies. The move was met with a lot of criticism, especially since OxygenOS has a strong fan following and is considered one of the key strengths of OnePlus devices.
In a surprising move, OnePlus announced at MWC 2022 that globally its devices will continue running OxygenOS after all. Here's why the company is possibly sticking with its own skin instead of working on a unified OS.
Why OnePlus and Oppo Wanted a Unified OS
OnePlus and Oppo are owned by the same parent company, BBK. Additionally, the devices from both companies are very similar, with only some design and minor hardware changes.
With the smartphone market consolidating, it made sense from a financial viewpoint to merge both brands and run the same unified operating system on them instead of spending money to maintain two different skins.
Apart from saving money, this move also promised faster update timelines for OnePlus and Oppo devices.
OxygenOS and ColorOS Target Different Audiences
OnePlus' OxygenOS skin caters to a completely different audience to ColorOS. The former offers a stock Android-like experience with some additional tweaks and enhancements aimed towards the western audience. On the other hand, ColorOS has a completely different UI and many more features that better suit the taste of Asian and Chinese smartphone users.
OnePlus users are also a lot more vocal about the skin and expect speedy and regular software releases, unlike ColorOS users.
However, since the OnePlus-Oppo merger was announced in June 2021, the former became even slower in releasing updates. Making matters worse, whatever updates it did manage to roll out were often buggier than usual, forcing the company to pull them down at times.
OnePlus Calls Off the Move Following Backlash
In a surprising turn of events, OnePlus announced during MWC 2022 that OxygenOS and ColorOS would remain independent brands, with plans for a unified OS effectively being dropped. This is not surprising given the criticism OnePlus received following its initial announcement.
The company even acknowledges this in its statement on OnePlus forums saying this "new course was taken in accordance with feedback from our Community—we understand users of OxygenOS and ColorOS want each operating system to remain separate from each other with their own distinct properties."
The Skins Will Still Share a Unified Codebase
What's important to note here is that both skins will continue to share the same codebase. This means that OxygenOS will run as a skin on top of ColorOS and Android itself. There are a few benefits to this, including users having access to the ColorOS camera app, as first seen on the OnePlus Nord 2.
Additionally, there could be a lot more customization options to play around with.
Theoretically, the shared codebase also means fewer bugs and faster updates for both OnePlus and Oppo devices, though this is something that only time will tell.
A Step in the Right Direction
For OnePlus, this is a step in the right direction as the move to switch to a unified OS had angered the company's core users and fanboys. OxygenOS is also one of the key strengths of its devices and giving up on it made little sense.
What now remains to be seen is whether or not the unified codebase helps OnePlus in rolling out OS updates to its devices quickly.