7 amazing OxygenOS 14 features coming to the OnePlus 11

OnePlus has just revealed its Android 14 update in the form of OxygenOS 14, a huge upgrade to the OnePlus-focused skin coming first to the OnePlus 11 in November. 

The update not only looks to boost performance with a new Trinity Engine, but with an overhauled Aquamorphic 2.0 design and 20 new ringtones, supported OnePlus phones will look, sound and feel brand new.

Of course, there are too many small tweaks and improvements to discuss, but here’s our selection of the most notable additions headed to the OnePlus 11 with OxygenOS 14.  

Aquamorphic design 2.0

OnePlus’ OxygenOS is famous for its aquamorphic design influence – the concept of ‘allowing every interaction to feel completely natural and fluid while providing a smoothing sensation that brings the user closer to nature’. This is done in various subtle ways, like the ripple effect you see when you use an on-screen fingerprint reader. 

That’s set to improve with the introduction of the Aquamorphic design 2.0 in OxygenOS 14, with OnePlus teasing all-round improvements to the UI and animations and big new design-focused features. 

One such feature is the ability for your lock screen to display a live gradient representing your current battery levels when charging your phone, allowing you to see how much it’s charged at a glance. There’s also improved colour-matching technology based on Google’s Material You, which should better sync the colour of the UI with the main colours of your phone’s wallpaper. 

Better sound effects

As well as an upgraded visual experience, OxygenOS 14 comes with 20 sets of new ringtones for users to choose from. It’s not just exclusive to longer ringtones either, with plenty of new alert tones for you to choose from. 

Considering most manufacturers have had the same sets of ring- and alert tones for years now – we’re looking at you, Apple and Samsung – it’s great to see OnePlus putting some real effort not only into how the software looks, but how it sounds too. 

The Trinity Engine

OnePlus’ proprietary Trinity Engine technology will also be available in OxygenOS 14. It’s essentially a collection of six technologies – CPU Vitalisation, RAM Vitalisation, ROM Vitalisation, Hyper Boost, Hyper Touch and Hyper Rendering – that work together to improve the overall performance of your smartphone.

The aim, according to OnePlus, is to deliver balanced everyday performance with a set of game-specific rendering boosts to eke out the best performance possible from the phone’s chipset. We’ll take a mid-season performance boost without the need to buy a new smartphone any day! 

Auto Pixelate 2.0

OnePlus’ Auto Pixelate technology has also had an upgrade in OxygenOS 14. 

Building upon the earlier version of the tech, Auto Pixelate 2.0 can now automatically pixellate more sensitive information in photos and screenshots, like contact details, numerical strings, vehicle license plates, credit card details in receipts and much more. 

This should hopefully make it way easier to share images on social media without potentially sensitive information being leaked at the same time. It’s a really cool feature you don’t tend to see on other Android skins. 

Fluid Cloud

It was always going to happen eventually, and it’s finally here: the first Apple Dynamic Island dupe dubbed Fluid Cloud. 

Introduced in OxygenOS 14, the Fluid Cloud is a new status bar that, according to OnePlus, can “present forms of real-time services”. 

The company didn’t go into much detail about what those real-time services could be, but it has been suggested that app notifications with a live status – i.e. food delivery or cab pick-ups – could be displayed in the window. Sound familiar?

The Fluid Cloud will also integrate Android features like conversation bubbles and full-screen pop-up windows to help provide a more unified style to notifications, and it’s said to work on phones, tablets and watches, suggesting the likes of the OnePlus Pad and OnePlus Watch will get the updated system too. 

Smart Cutout

Not content just ‘borrowing inspiration’ from Apple for its Fluid Cloud tech, OnePlus has also integrated another fan-favourite iOS feature in the form of Smart Cutouts. 

Much like its Apple equivalent, the idea is simple; simply tap and hold on the subject in a photo or video to generate a cut-out image using the phone’s AI chops. This can then be shared in apps, used in photo edits and more. 

Notes 2.0

Note apps are often glossed over in these big updates, but that’s not the case with an overhauled Notes experience in OxygenOS 14.

Though it may not look that visually different from its predecessor, the new Notes app boasts improved usability with better editing capabilities that allow you to change various formatting options like fonts, colours, size, as well as the ability to insert elements like lists and page breaks, expanding just what the Notes app can be used for.

What’s more, you can create your own style presets to make creating certain documents – like shopping lists or work briefing notes – much easier.