- OnePlus will no longer equip your phones with the iconic alert slider switch
- The future OnePlus phones will have a customizable button in the iPhone style
- The button will offer the same functionality as the alert sliding control plus the new features
OnePlus will replace the iconic alert slider found in most of its main phones with a customizable button in the style of Apple, according to a new statement from the company’s CEO.
In a publication at the OnePlus Community Forum, the CEO of OnePlus, Pete Lau, confirmed that the alert sliding control would be replaced due to the limited functionality offered by the three -position sliding control.
This means that the successors of the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R will probably lack one of the most emblematic characteristics of the brand.
Lau gave few details about the successor of the alert sliding control, only that it would offer more functionality than the current three position switch, and that the change between sound profiles without unlocking the phone would still be possible.
In fact, the publication implies that Lau personally insisted that the new button should be able to offer the same functionality as the outgoing alert sliding control, as well as new and expanded functions that have not yet been revealed.
In general, this new OnePlus button sounds theoretically identical to the Apple action button, seen for the first time with the launch of the iPhone 15 Pro, so we can see the iPhone to make some educated conjectures about the potential capabilities of the new button.
The action button on the iPhone can be assigned to a long list of functions, including activation and off the flashlight, open the camera, activate direct access or alternate not to bother.
OnePlus takes a fairly liberal inspiration of Apple when it comes to software, there is a dynamic island simulated in the last OnePlus 13 interface, for example, so I would not surprise to see something similar of the future phones of the company.
Lau’s publication mentions that reaction to the OnePlus 10T, which was launched in 2022 Sans Slider of Alert, inspired the internal debate about the future of the iconic hardware function, and that eliminating the sliding control will allow a better use of the internal space of the devices. OnePlus has not yet announced the first product that will feature the new button.
The end of an era
OnePlus is the latest telephone manufacturer remaining in adapting to its phones with a physical bell switch, although, as this news implies, not for much longer.
I have always found that the Ringer switch stuck to OnePlus phones is a useful addition: other functions are easy enough to find in the user interface or on the lock screen, and it is good to change my phone in silent mode without even looking at the screen when I am taking a break.
Perhaps even more important is the character that the alert sliding control brings to OnePlus phones: it is a unique feature that caused the best OnePlus phones to stand out in a field of increasingly homogeneous telephone designs, lending as much personality as utility.
When I was driving the open OnePlus daily, I used the sliding control every day and I still use it every time I am testing a OnePlus or Oppo phone (OPPO and OnePlus are related companies under the same father umbrella). Tactility is something weird and underestimated in the modern telephone design, so I will be really sad to see the alert sliding control.
What do you think about this decision? Should OnePlus have kept the alert sliding control as it is? Let us know in the comments.
