While Mobile World Congress (MWC) is a meeting place for hardware makers to showcase their bleeding edge innovations, Google’s I/O is more centered towards developers. However, regular Android users often find it fascinating due to the glimpses of upcoming Android update.
For example, Google announced the third beta update of Android Q on the first day (May 7) of Google I/O 2019. Q Beta 3 brought a number of under the hood changes on domains like privacy, native dark mode, WiFi connection stack etc., but the major surprise was something else.
Well, you can now officially taste the beta builds of Android Q on OnePlus phones! Both OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T are currently supported under this initiative. As a matter of fact, Google added 15 non-Pixel phones from 12 OEMs in the public beta testing.
Google’s initial announcement post only mentioned OnePlus 6T as the eligible device from the Shenzhen based OEM. OnePlus later published a separate thread in their official forum, where they announced that both OnePlus 6 and 6T users would participate in this beta testing.
Wait, there’s more! OnePlus is already preparing the OnePlus 7 series for Android Q adoption, as they are going to be supported right after official release.
FYI, last year (2018) OnePlus 6 was selected as a third party candidate for Android P (the name ‘Pie’ wasn’t finalised then) beta testing. OnePlus modified the vanilla Android with a thin layer of OxygenOS specific tweaks and pushed to the beta testers via a series of Developer Preview builds.
While OnePlus 6 has got the impressive status for being selected as beta testing device in two consecutive Android major version updates, older OnePlus devices (such as OnePlus 5/5T) are stuck with standard update roadmap.
According to Google, Project Treble made it possible to extend the preliminary beta testing environment to so many third party phones.
This year, Android Q Beta 3 is available on 15 partner devices from 12 OEMs — that’s twice as many devices as last year! It’s all thanks to Project Treble and especially to our partners who are committed to accelerating updates to Android users globally — Huawei, Xiaomi, Nokia, Sony, Vivo, OPPO, OnePlus, ASUS, LGE, TECNO, Essential, and realme.
Here is a catch! OnePlus did bring official Project Treble support for OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T via OTA update. Moreover, they are committed to bring 3 major Android version updates for OnePlus 3/3T.
Will OnePlus 5 and 5T receive Android Q (beta/final) in future? Let’s keep your hopes up.
Back to the Android Q beta for OnePlus 6/6T, the following things are not working/buggy on the first Developer Preview build:
1. Camera, portrait mode does not work
2. Ambient Display is not working
3. System stability issues
4. Encryption will change in the next preview build
5. Some apps may not function as expected when running on this Developer preview release
The fourth point is rather interesting though. We have seen similar encryption related issues with OnePlus 3/3T as well, which lead to user data corruption under some circumstances.
Manu J., the Global Product Operations Manager of OnePlus, has shared the first Developer Preview build (based on Android Q Beta 3) for OnePlus 6 and 6T:
The upgrade process is as follows:
1. Download the latest ROM upgrade zip package from the specified server.
2. Copy the ROM upgrade package to the phone storage.
3. Go to Settings -> System -> System Updates -> Click top right icon -> Local upgrade -> Click on the corresponding installation package -> upgrade -> System upgrade completed to 100%.
4. After the upgrade is complete, click Restart.
5. Phone will boot into recovery mode to format user data, it will reboot again after formatting.
6. Update successful.
The company has also shared special rollback packages which can be useful to downgrade the phone from Android Q Developer Preview to Pie based OxygenOS. Remember, both upgrade and downgrade will wipe your data, including the internal storage! So proceed with caution.
Rollback packages can be downloaded using the following links:
As the dedicated feedback tool is absent in this build of Android Q, head over to the Feedback section of OnePlus forums to share your experiences, bug reports and suggestions. For further discussions, take a look at the official announcement thread.
While OnePlus was busy cooking the Android Q Developer Preview for OnePlus 6/6T, we reported about a pesky bug in OxygenOS 9.x that randomly wiped out Speed Dial contacts.
Android Police reached contacted the Shenzhen based OEM regarding this issue. OnePlus PR replied back and assured them that the company will patch the bug in next software update.
Meanwhile, OnePlus India has brought you a chance to win the OnePlus 7 Pro! You just need to follow the instructions in this tweet.
Let’s finish it up for today, shall we?
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Kingshuk De
896 Posts
I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.
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