OnePlus Unveils OxygenOS 16! Featuring Liquid Glass, Beautiful Animations, and Apple Watch Support

OnePlus this week unveiled OxygenOS 16, a new version of its system built on Android 16. Don’t expect any groundbreaking changes – it’s more of an evolution of what the company started with version 15. The main attractions? Even smoother animations, practical AI features, and Apple Watch connectivity.

Animations So Smooth Your Phone Might Slip From Your Hand

The main technical innovation is Parallel Processing 2.0. OnePlus introduced this technology last year with OxygenOS 15, but back then it only worked on the home screen. In principle, the system can start new animations even before previous ones are completed.

This year, OnePlus extended parallel processing to three-button navigation, the Shelf panel, the app drawer, and other parts of the interface. They also added a new animation technology called Flow Motion, which handles transitions between different parts of the system. The result? The phone feels like it has a refresh rate higher than 120 Hz, with icons gliding across the display like an ice skater on ice.

Plus Mind: AI That Really Knows What’s On Your Phone

OnePlus also bet on Plus Mind – a personal AI that organizes all your screenshots, notes, and memos into one place called Mind Space. You can launch it with the Plus Key button (which replaced the popular Alert Slider) or by swiping up with three fingers on the screen.

What can it do? It recognizes the context of saved content. Take a photo of a concert poster? The system will offer to add the date and time to your calendar. Save a series of screenshots? Plus Mind will stitch them into a long image and organize them nicely. It’s not revolutionary, but it works naturally, without the need to outsmart the system.

Google Gemini Finally Works With Your Data

The biggest AI innovation is the active integration of Google Gemini with Mind Space. Gemini can draw directly from saved data in Mind Space to provide personalized answers. In practice, this means you can find inspiring interior design photos, save them to Mind Space, and then ask Gemini to suggest a room layout. The AI will create a detailed plan directly from your materials.

Here, OnePlus has done something that other manufacturers only promise – it connected AI with real user data, not just general knowledge from the internet. This is precisely the missing piece that makes artificial intelligence more than just a chatbot on steroids.

AI Tools You Might Actually Use

OxygenOS 16 brings a suite of AI tools that don’t pretend to save the world. AI Writer offers advanced content creation tools, including mind maps and social media captions. AI Scan transforms your camera into a smart scanner – you photograph a document, receipt, or notes, and the system converts them into an editable PDF.

For photo editing, there’s AI Portrait Glow, which enhances portraits in low light, and AI Perfect Shot, which automatically corrects closed eyes or strange facial expressions from previous shots.

Experimental features can be found in the AI PlayLab section – among them YumSee for text-to-image conversion or Party Up for animating group photos. The nice thing is that all AI features are grouped together in the settings, so you don’t have to hunt for them throughout the system.

Apple Watch on a OnePlus Phone. Seriously

For years, OnePlus has dreamed of interoperating with the Apple ecosystem. This year, they took a bold – or naive – step: OxygenOS 16 supports connectivity with Apple Watch. Yes, you can receive notifications, messages, and calls from your OnePlus phone on your Cupertino watch. You can even synchronize workout records, control the phone’s camera, or use the Find My Phone feature.

Just install the OHealth app on the watch, and you’re set. But here’s the catch – how long will Apple tolerate this? The Cupertino company is not known for willingly allowing its hardware to connect to foreign systems. One well-placed software update, and this entire integration could end up in the bin. OnePlus is playing with fire here, but we have to give them credit for the attempt.

Improved connectivity can also be found with Windows and Mac computers. The O+ Connect app allows access to files on the phone, content sharing, or controlling a OnePlus tablet from a PC using a virtual touchpad.

Design: When You Don’t Know If You’re on an iPhone or Android

OxygenOS 16 introduces Liquid Glass effects – transparent interfaces, Gaussian blur, and rounded corners. If that sounds familiar, you’re right. OnePlus was inspired by iOS 26, where Liquid Glass is the cornerstone of the entire design.

OnePlus once knew how to take features copied from competitors and instill order and meaning into them. Today, it just copies – from Apple, from ColorOS, from anyone – and hopes it passes. And because people buy phones anyway, it works for now.

When Will the System Arrive on Your Phone?

OxygenOS 16 will arrive in November for the latest models. First in line are the OnePlus 13, 13R, 13s, 12, 12R, and the OnePlus Open, Pad 3, and Pad 2 tablets.

In December, the update will come to older models: OnePlus 11 5G, 11R 5G, Nord 5, Nord CE5, Nord 4, and Nord 3 5G.

In the first quarter of 2026 (January to March), the system will be rolled out to: OnePlus 10 Pro 5G, Nord CE4, Nord CE4 Lite 5G, Pad, and Pad Lite.

OnePlus warns that updates are rolled out in waves – some users will see it in the first week of November, others perhaps in the third week.

What do you think of the new OxygenOS 16?

Source: OnePlus, GSMArena