Oxygen OS 12 released for OnePlus 8, 8Pro, 8T and 9R

OnePlus seem to be having a busy weekend since news just dropped on the community forum that Oxygen OS 12 is officially our and no longer in beta for four of the company’s devices – OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 8T and OnePlus 9R. The package names are as follows: OP8: IN2011_11.C.11 (IN), IN2015_11.C.11 (NA); OP8 Pro: IN2021_11.C.11 (IN), IN2025_11.C.11 (NA); OP8T: KB2001_11.C.11 (IN), KB2005_11.C.11 (NA) and OP9R: LE2101_11.C.14 (IN). All of these are based on Android 12, and as far as we can tell, share the same changelog:

• System
  • Optimized desktop icons with improved textures, by using a design inspired by brand-new materials and uniting lights and layers
  • Fixed the issue that background applications are abnormally closed in specific scenarios
  • Fixed the issue with lens permissions when using third party camera applications
  • Fixed the issue of screen cannot respond when receiving notifications
• Dark mode
  • Dark mode now supports three adjustable levels, bringing a more personalized and comfortable user experience
• Shelf
  • New additional style options for Cards, making data contents more visual and easier to read
  • Newly added Earphone Control Card with Bluetooth earphone one-click adjustment
  • Newly added access to OnePlus Scout in Shelf, allowing you to search multiple contents on your phone, including Apps, Settings, Media Data, etc
  • Newly added OnePlus Watch Card in Shelf, to easily glance at your health stats
• Work Life Balance
  • Work Life Balance feature is now available to all users, allowing you to effortlessly switch between Work and Life mode via quick settings
  • WLB 2.0 now supports automatic Work/Life mode switching, based on specific locations, Wi-Fi network, and time, also bringing customized App notification profiles according to the personalization
• Gallery
  • Gallery now allows you to switch between different layouts with a two-finger pinch gesture, intelligently recognizing the best-quality pictures, and cropping the thumbnail based on the content, making the gallery layout more pleasing
• Canvas AOD
  • Canvas AOD brings you new diverse styles of lines and colors, for a more personalized lock screen experience with inspiring visuals
  • Newly added multiple brushes and strokes and support for color adjustment
  • Optimized software algorithm and improved face recognition to better identify the features and skin color of different figures
• Network
  • Fixed the issue that unable to automatically connect to Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
  • Fixed the issue that wireless earphones cannot play sound when connecting Bluetooth in specific scenarios

The OTA packages have begun a staged rollout in the OBT (open beta test) branch and should be coming to the stable branch shortly. You can hit up the source link, which leads to the OnePlus community forum and browse the corresponding thread for further info on the updates themselves.

OnePlus 8 Pro OxygenOS 12 update screen

As for OxygenOS 12, you can read our in-depth review of what is probably the most polarizing iteration of the OnePlus Android flavor to come out in years. As a quick refresher, in case you missed some key recent events, OxygenOS 12 had to be pulled after a flood of bug reports and various issues from its initial rollout on OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro phones. The update has since been fixed and is rolling out again for the pair of devices, but without addressing the more serious underlying cause for much of the user and fan unrest and commotion.

Last year OnePlus and Oppo decided to complicate their relationship yet again, seemingly in an effort to keep it as increasingly ambiguous as possible by announcing that the OnePlus OxygenOS and Oppo’s ColorOS would merge into a unified operating system. One that was supposed to even get its own new name but just ended up being timidly referred to as “OnePlus 2.0”.

The most recent development in the saga mostly overturns this unification plan, with OnePlus and Oppo announcing last month that instead of merging the OS flavors, they will share a unified codebase and RnD but remain separate and retain the particular approach to UX and UI their respective users have come to expect. Which, for OnePlus and presumably OxygenOS 13, means a return to a cleaner, AOSP-like feel.

Unfortunately, before that happens, Oxygen 12 is still pretty messy in more than a few ways and kind of a random mix between OnePlus and Oppo elements. Then again, we are far from the final authority on the matter, and you might just find OxygenOS 12 perfectly pleasant yourself. You can likely expect a taste shortly as the OTA reaches your device. And if you’re not happy, OnePlus does provide instructions to roll back.