OnePlus merges Oxygen OS and Hydrogen OS for faster Android updates

OnePlus will combine its own skins for Android Oxygen OS and Hydrogen OS. It wants to enable faster updates for its smartphones. Hydrogen OS is OnePlus’ skin for the Chinese market.

The development teams for both skins have since been merged, XDA reports. The merger should accelerate the delivery of updates for its devices. Users of the OnePlus X only recently received an update to Android 6.0, for example.

Nevertheless, the step will not only have positive consequences. Where OxygenOS is a derivative of stock Android as it is on Nexus devices, HydrogenOS is more a derivative of iOS from Apple, Miui from Xiaomi and Emui from Huawei, without, for example, an app drawer. It is unknown in what proportion OnePlus combines both firmwares, but it is obvious that the appearance of the skin as Westerners know it will change.

OnePlus was still working with Cyanogen for the western market when it released its first smartphone One, but the two companies came into conflict and then the Chinese smartphone maker made its own edition of Android. That happened after OnePlus hired many developers of the custom rom Paranoid Android.