OnePlus is merging OxygenOS with Oppo’s ColorOS

 Following last month’s announcement that OnePlus was integrating with Oppo, effectively becoming a sub-brand of the phone manufacturer, the company announced on Friday that it’s also merging OxygenOS with Oppo’s ColorOS operating system

Both companies’ software will remain separate and continue to serve their individual regions (OxygenOS for OnePlus phones globally, ColorOS on OnePlus and Oppo devices in China) but share a common codebase, which OnePlus says should standardize its software experience and streamline the development process for future OxygenOS updates.

OnePlus says the change will also allow the company to guarantee better Android update support going forward, something Samsung has also tried to improve on in the last few years. OnePlus lays out the life span for updates as follows:

Flagship phones including the T and R models get three major Android updates and four years of security updates.

Nord and Nord CE phones get two major Android updates and three years of security updates.

Nord N phones will get one major Android update and three years of security updates.

OnePlus does limit those update commitments to the OnePlus 8 and up, so older OnePlus devices will be out of luck.

As the next step in whatever is going on with OnePlus, Oppo, and the wider BBK Electronics umbrella, merging the companies’ software on the backend seems like a net positive for OnePlus users. How independent OnePlus is now that it’s “integrated” seems about as unclear as when it was independent, owned by BBK, and seemingly sharing some parts with Oppo, but as long as phones are supported, it hopefully shouldn’t matter.