OnePlus on Friday announced on Twitter that the Always-on Display (AOD) feature is “on the roadmap” indicating that the feature might start arriving on OnePlus phones shortly. OnePlus users have been asking for the always-on display for a while now with the latest request being submitted on OnePlus IDEAS portal. The post has received more than 999 likes and the OnePlus team on Friday confirmed that the feature is “now on our roadmap.” For years now, OnePlus is using AMOLED screens on its smartphones and the AOD feature has been omitted for various reasons.
Always-on Display: The Battery Life Concern for OnePlus
It has to be noted that OnePlus shipped the OnePlus 6 to certain users with a pre-production software that had an always-on display feature. While the mode that was highlighted by users on Reddit, was present in the software, it was not active and users had to toggle the switch on settings to use the feature.
However, that toggle switch mode was later removed through a launch day update due to “battery saving concern” from the OnePlus team.
Fast forward to 2020, the OxygenOS users continue to ask for always-on display and a request was submitted to OnePlus IDEAS portal by a user on March 5. Initially, OxygenOS Operations staff member Gary C noted on March 19 that OnePlus had been continuing to develop and test the feature.
Further, it was said that the feature if implemented would deduct two hours from daily usage and that the team felt such a drainage would “have a notorious impact on digital natives.”
The staff member said that the team were working on a test applied to power consumption of the feature on a higher refresh rate device.
Always-on Display Could Be a Reality
Finally, OnePlus team on Friday noted that the tests were positive and that the OnePlus team would keep its community on the loop as to when the users might enjoy the feature on their phones.
“We are working on fine-tuning AOD to make sure it is perfectly optimised,” Gary C said on the OnePlus IDEAS portal.
It remains to be seen if the feature would be introduced as an update on existing OnePlus phones or as a feature only on the upcoming OnePlus 8 series.
