The latest OS update for OnePlus smartphones is not just an incremental one. The new OxygenOS 15 brings exciting design changes and helpful features to OnePlus devices. While it may share a lot of similarities with Oppo’s ColorOS 15, OxygenOS 15 carves out a special place for itself with its light, responsive UI and snappy operation. We’ve been using the OxygenOS 15 on the new OnePlus 13 (our review here) for a month, here are our 10 favourite features.
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In This Article
Lock Screen Customisations
OxygenOS 15 brings new lock screen customisations for OnePlus smartphones, the biggest one being the depth effect for the lock screen wallpaper. Inspired by iOS, Xiaomi was the first Android OEM to introduce this feature in its OS skin. Oppo and OnePlus followed the path this year on ColorOS 15 and OxygenOS 15 respectively. You can use the Flux Themes for your lock screen and customise the wallpaper by adding an image from your phone’s gallery. OxygenOS lets you change the clock style/font and add weather and step count widgets to the lock screen as well.
Live Alerts
The punch-hole cutout on your smartphone’s display now expands into a pill-shaped animation to display information related to certain tasks. These tasks include media playback (supported by Spotify and Apple Music), real-time alerts (supported by Swiggy and Zomato), screen recording, timer, data sharing via personal hotspot, and more. Much like the Dynamic Island on the iPhone, tapping on the pill animation brings up the app card. You can swipe on the pill to view the different tasks taking place in the background.
Share with iPhone
Since AirDrop is exclusive to Apple devices, file-sharing between Android and iOS is very challenging. OxygenOS 15 gets around this problem with its new ‘Share with iPhone’ feature. You’ll find this option next to the Quick Share tile upon hitting the share icon in the bottom menu of a file. The sharing interface is simple and accessible, but the transfer process requires installing the O+ Connect app on the target iPhone.
Notification Shade + Quick Settings
The bifurcation of the notification shade and the quick settings menu is another design element that OxygenOS 15 has borrowed from its Apple counterpart. Swiping down on the status bar (or the home page) from the left side of the selfie camera now reveals the lone notification shade. Meanwhile, swiping down from the right side gives access to the quick setting menu. You can always restore the previous layout using device settings. The quick controls for WiFi, Bluetooth, Brightness, and Volume now have rounded tiles. Since there is no notification at the bottom of the quick menu, the tiles now extend to the bottom of the screen.
Private Safe
The private safe on your OnePlus smartphone is a practical locker for sensitive files, documents, images, and videos. On OxygenOS 15, the private safe lets you create new folders for better organisation. By default, the media files are categorised into images and videos.
Hidden Folder
The hidden folder on OxygenOS 15 now appears as an app on the home screen. You can customise its icon and name to make it as inconspicuous as possible. The older option of punching in the special code in the dialer to access hidden apps still exists in the new iteration of OxygenOS.
Open Canvas
OnePlus’ split-screen view has gotten a major boost in OxygenOS 15, making it one of our favourite features of the OS. You can now adjust the size of the app windows to the point where one is barely visible. A simple tap on the app brings it back into focus. This is useful when you occasionally want to use the other app but don’t want to minimise it. OxygenOS 15 also allows you to save app pairs and switch an app with another at any given time.
AI Reply
OnePlus has made improvements to OxygenOS 15’s AI features. The AI Reply tool is our favourite of the lot. You can access this feature from the Smart Sidebar as soon as you open a conversation thread. AI Reply reads the screen and comes up with a response that is relevant to the conversation. You can edit this response by changing its tone or adding more context to it before hitting send.
AI Reflection Eraser
Have you ever taken pictures through the window of a moving vehicle but were unimpressed with the results? Even if your phone camera’s shutter speed froze the motion correctly, the reflection on the window glass may have ensured that the photo remains in your phone’s gallery. You can now fix these images using the AI reflection tool on OxygenOS 15. This tool is a part of the AI editor in the native Photos app. It intelligently recognises the reflections falling on a glass surface and wipes them out of the picture.
Translate app
OnePlus now has a standalone translation app of its own. And it is pretty good. You can use the Conversation mode in this app to have in-person conversations in another language. Its split-screen mode makes it easy for the listener to look at the translated text on the display. On top of that, the Translate app can work in the background and translate the text within any app to your selected target language.
Read Also: Apple brings iOS 18.3 update; Notification Summaries now disabled by default
Final Thoughts
These are our top 10 favourite OxygenOS 15 features. The OS also incorporates essential Android 15 features like Theft Protection, Gemini Assistant, Circle to Search, and more. Which is your favourite feature on OxygenOS 15? Let us know in the comments!
