A couple of weeks ago, OnePlus had announced that it would be integrating itself with sister company Oppo on a deeper level, causing widespread concern regarding the company's future products and Oxygen OS operating system, which is cherished by enthusiasts who yearn for a feature-rich yet uncluttered UI.
At the time, the company had said that merging of the resources with Oppo would result in overall better and faster updates. Today, the company has announced extended Oxygen OS support for most of its devices, living up to its statement.
As part of an official forum post, the product lead of Oxygen OS, Gary C. announced the same, underlying which smartphones would be getting extended updates and for how long. Here is a helpful summary to list out the same.
Is Oxygen OS Becoming Oppo's Color OS
1. Flagships series (including T-series and R-series): The OnePlus 8 series and devices launched later will be getting three major Android updates and four years of security updates.
2. OnePlus Nord and Nord CE: The OG OnePlus Nord and the upcoming Nord and Nord CE devices will be getting two major Android updates and three years of security updates.
3. OnePlus Nord N series: Commencing from the OnePlus Nord N10 and N100, all future and current N-series devices will get one major Android update and three years of security updates.
This is quite good, considering how this new commitment is an extension when compared to the usual rule of two major Android upgrades and three years of security patches for most OnePlus devices, with the only devices truly missing out being the Nord N series of devices, which will be restricted to just one software version update.
Gary C. also added something else in the post, mentioning that this new schedule for Oxygen OS updates is tied to the company's shared resources with Oppo. This adds with it the merging of the codebases for Oxygen OS and Oppo’s Color OS that will allow both skins to live on a more stable and stronger platform.
This does not effectively mean that Oxygen OS and Color OS are the same or will be the same, but it does mean that the core of Oxygen OS will no longer be the same, with this new platform set to accompany devices with Android 12.
The long term consequences or the extent of the changes coming to the OnePlus devices is not yet known, but the OnePlus 8 series and above users can be happy to note that their devices are supported well.
