OnePlus 7T OxygenOS 11 Beta Brings Always-On-Display Feature
OnePlus has always been proud of what it's able to accomplish despite being a small company and exactly because it is a small company. It is able to be more agile and flexible, to establish more intimate relationships with its customers, and to take risks that richer companies are ironically more afraid to take. Unfortunately, it also means it may have fewer resources, especially for things like developing its custom OxygenOS Android experience whose latest version has still to reach its older phones. Fortunately for OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro owners, the wait might be well worth it.
Despite its usual speed in rolling out Android updates, it seems that OnePlus has somewhat dropped the ball with Android 11 and OxygenOS 11. It was only just this Monday that the OnePlus Nord got its update and, before that, only the current OnePlus 8 series has been gifted with the update. The rest are still stuck in Open Beta for at least two months now.
OnePlus just recently announced another beta release of OxygenOS 11, this time for the OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro. It has the usual changelog of fixes since the last beta release but Piunikaweb noticed one important bullet point missing. OxygenOS 11 is supposed to bring Always-on-Display or AOD, what OnePlus brands as Always-on Ambient Display, but it was nowhere to be seen in the changelog.
Fortunately, that might have just been a clerical error since the feature is actually available on the OnePlus 7T, at least if you're part of that beta program. Those who were already on the beta will actually see AOD mentioned in the update, just not on the official forums. Given the OnePlus 7 OxygenOS 11 Beta does have AOD listed, it would have been odd if the more advanced OnePlus 7T didn't get the feature at all.
That said, the question remains when the stable version of OxygenOS will come to the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7T series. The company hasn't updated its schedule for the rollout so far and the fate of the OnePlus 6 and 6T as well as the OnePlus Nord N10 and N100 are still unknown as well.