All is not properly within the optimistic, upstart world of OnePlus.
In 2014, when the relationship between nascent smartphone maker OnePlus and alternative software maker Cyanogen Inc. was souring, the corporate started work on a brand new in-house model of Android, which might ultimately develop into to be referred to as OxygenOS.
The group behind OxygenOS was largely made up of members of the previous customized ROM group Paranoid Android, lots of whom in early 2015 relocated to Shenzhen to work extra intently with the corporate’s hardware and advertising groups.
The aim was to have OxygenOS, which at first was much less feature-rich than the model of CyanogenOS that arrived on the corporate’s first telephone, ship with the OnePlus 2 in early 2015. Within the subsequent months, the event staff constructed up what we now know of because the software program that ships on the OnePlus 3, the newest unlocked, direct-to-consumer smartphone from the upstart producer.
Lengthy hours and inadequate assets on the firm within the run-up to the launch of the OnePlus three led to quite a lot of individuals on the OxygenOS staff to go away.
However in mid-August, OnePlus released a community build of an upcoming version of OxygenOS, dubbed OxygenOS three.5, which confers some huge aesthetic modifications to the OnePlus three’s near-stock aesthetic. The modifications weren’t universally lauded, however because the launch a lot of the core group has taken to its new look and up to date function set. Within the days following OxygenOS three.5, OnePlus introduced through a series of interviews that it was merging its OxygenOS improvement group, which has heretofore targeted on the North American and European markets, with that of HydrogenOS, a separate model of the software program for OnePlus’s rising Chinese language viewers.
Whereas the messaging from OnePlus depicted an organization with a singular aim of constructing effectivity by way of consolidation, with a view to supply quicker software program updates for all OnePlus house owners, Android Central has discovered that previous to the merger, most of the core members of the OxygenOS staff left the corporate, together with the Head of Cellular Product, Helen Li. Lengthy hours and inadequate assets within the run-up to OnePlus three’s launch led to a lot of OxygenOS staff members hanging a deal to terminate their contracts simply after the telephone’s launch, based on individuals who did not need to be named as a result of they signed non-disclosure agreements. In consequence, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau had no selection however to merge the remaining members of OxygenOS, a few of whom are solely signed on till the top of 2016, and HydrogenOS.
In response to these individuals, regardless of a three:1 ratio of OxygenOS customers to its Chinese language market counterpart, OnePlus was disproportionately pouring assets into HydrogenOS, inflicting pressure between the 2 groups and main the next expertise purge.
In a press release to Android Central, OnePlus stated, “We have now unified our software program platform and workforce to extend effectivity and velocity up our software program updates. This has been within the works for some time now as a result of sustaining two separate software program platforms is just not sustainable for such a small, younger firm with huge ambitions.” The corporate confirmed that OxygenOS and HydrogenOS will stay separate merchandise aimed toward distinct markets in the meanwhile, and that the “again finish” change is “an essential step in the appropriate course.”
However our sources say that this transfer was by no means intentional, and got here out of a employees exodus that took the corporate’s administration abruptly. Because the unification, the HydrogenOS staff has begun the sluggish strategy of merging code from the 2 tasks, the primary variations of which have been the OxygenOS three.5 group construct and the subsequent 3.5.1 update, launched every week later.
The chief designer answerable for championing and sustaining OxygenOS’s “Nexus-like” aesthetic is not with the corporate.
Tasks that uniquely determine OxygenOS, just like the Shelf, are at present being tended to by the remaining OxygenOS members, who’re aiding within the transition earlier than they, too, depart. Equally, the chief designer answerable for championing and sustaining OxygenOS’ “Nexus-like” aesthetic, is not with the corporate, so it stays to be seen whether or not the now-unified product, dubbed OnePlus OS, or OOS, will shift extra markedly in the direction of a customized appear and feel, just like Huawei’s EMUI software program layer, or Xiaomi’s MIUI, which seems to be and operates drastically totally different to what North American Android customers anticipate.
Whereas this information is undoubtedly a setback for followers of the OnePlus three’s stock-like software program expertise, it is unclear how the interior modifications will have an effect on the standard of the telephone’s launch going ahead, or whether or not, beneath a single staff, the corporate can stick with its promise of extra frequent updates with none unfavourable penalties.