OxygenOS 16 has new lock screen customization options and a novel Gemini integration

OnePlus finally showed off its experience with Android 16. OxygenOS 16, which is first shipping on the upcoming OnePlus 15, combines Android’s new customization options, with smoother animations and AI that looks like it was lifted directly from Nothing OS.

The centerpiece of OxygenOS 16 is deeper integration between OnePlus’ “Mind Space” app and Google Gemini. Mind Space debuted alongside the Plus Key – a replacement for OnePlus’ classic Alert Slider – on some OnePlus 13 phones earlier this year. Like Nothing’s Essential Space, it takes screenshots and voice memos and automatically categorizes them into folders that you can refer to later. The big innovation in OxygenOS 16 is that you can now ask Gemini to point to content in Mind Space to personalize responses. The idea is that the added context will make the AI ​​assistant’s responses more useful.

OnePlus is also jumping on the AI ​​bandwagon for writing and photo editing. AI Writer in OxygenOS 16 can turn text into mind maps and tables with a few taps, as well as create captions for social media based on the image. The usual options for proofreading and text summarization are also built-in. For photos, OnePlus is adding what it calls AI Portrait Glow to make faces visible even in poor lighting conditions and AI Perfect Shot, which appears to combine multiple photos to create a single photo where everyone’s eyes are open, like Google’s Best Take feature.

In addition to those AI-enabled features, OnePlus says it’s also improving customization and animation options across OxygenOS. With OxygenOS 16, you’ll be able to customize your lock screen with a variety of different fonts and layouts, including the option to turn a still photo into an animated GIF or use a video lock screen. On your home screen, OxygenOS 16 also gets a bunch of new widgets and the ability to resize app icons – another idea found in Nothing OS. Opening and navigating between apps should also be smoother thanks to new, snappy animations and an update to how the operating system loads content. Essentially, with Parallel Processing 2.0, OxygenOS 16 allows “new animations to start before previous actions are completed,” which should make everything feel more fluid.

These are just the highlights of OxygenOS 16, which also includes an expansion of the tablet multitasking system that OnePlus uses on its OnePlus Pad tablets, and new connectivity options that let you mirror your phone’s screen on macOS or Windows PCs.

OxygenOS 16 will be released alongside the OnePlus 15, which has no release date, but is expected to launch this fall. The new OS update will also be available on newer OnePlus devices starting November 2025, such as the OnePlus 13, OnePlus Pad 3, and OnePlus Open. A full list of compatible devices is available on the OnePlus website.