OnePlus has confirmed that OxygenOS, the Android skin that helped define the brand for more than a decade, is being retired in favor of ColorOS. The confirmation came buried in the community forum post announcing its exit from North America and Europe.
ColorOS replaces OxygenOS worldwide
OnePlus said that once ColorOS 17 goes live, users with eligible devices will get the option to voluntarily update to it. The company framed the move as a way to streamline development and speed up updates by pooling resources with parent company Oppo.
This has been a long time coming. OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau first signaled where things were headed for OxygenOS back in 2021, when he announced the company would merge engineering resources with Oppo. That merger unified the codebase behind OxygenOS and ColorOS, though OnePlus held onto a distinct experience on top of it for a while. Each OxygenOS release since then has looked a little more like ColorOS, and a report from earlier this month had already pointed to OxygenOS being phased out entirely, well before OnePlus made it official today.
India isn’t exempt from the software change
OnePlus paired the exit news with a separate post aimed at its India community, refuting shutdown speculation and reassuring that the company would continue operating as usual in the region. That reassurance is about hardware and retail presence though, not software. The ColorOS transition applies to India the same way it applies everywhere else.
Eligible OnePlus devices in India will get the same option to update to ColorOS 17 when it becomes available, putting the final nail in the coffin for OxygenOS. For years, OxygenOS was one of the main draws for OnePlus fans. Now that it’s going away, it’ll be interesting to see whether the brand can hold onto that loyalty, at least in the markets where it will continue to sell phones.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
