OnePlus started 2024 with a bang. Its new flagship, the OnePlus 12, joins the catalog as the Chinese firm’s most advanced mobile phone, with the exception of the OnePlus Open, the first foldable launched on the market last fall. He OnePlus software has lost strength in recent years by sneaking up on the alternatives of the other brands of the BBK consortium: OxygenOS is more ColorOS and RealmeUI than before.
This earned it some criticism from the most die-hard fans who joined the brand when it debuted a decade ago. Today the situation seems worse due to increasing amount of bloatware that users are complaining about. This concerns the two models mentioned, the most premium from the manufacturer.
Bloatware on the OnePlus 12 and opened with OxygenOS 14
OnePlus did not want to join the trend of extending the update policy, as Samsung or Google did. Its president believes that it is a mistake to offer seven years of updates, which might not please users.
The OnePlus Open is one of the devices affected by bloatware. Image by Ricardo Aguilar for Xataka
Since it’s neither one nor the other bloatware present in the latest two high-end OnePlus phones. As we read in Android Authority, it all started when the user Gauraang Ar ora
Luckily for OnePlus users in other regions, these only appear in India, with the LinkedIn app being the only one on the OnePlus 12 in the US. In Europe, regulations prevent this. However, the most alarming thing about the screen is that it attempts to hide the menu of additional applications and especially those that are checked by default.
The case is not much different in the OnePlus foldable: the OnePlus Open adds even more bloatware. In this case, it is Meta-applications, owner of very popular services like Facebook or WhatsApp. These include the following, which cannot be easily uninstalled: Meta App Installer, Meta App Manager and Meta Services.
There was already controversial in the past by Facebook apps on OnePlus phones, and although they promised to eliminate them, they are still there today. It is also added that somewhat suspicious applications appear such as ‘Ubiquitous management service‘we don’t know what it does in OxygenOS (the firm has stated that it is a framework shared with the other brands in the consortium) or ‘XRCB‘Yes’XRVD‘, supposedly from Qualcomm.
The situation does not look better in the near future.
If we thought the story ended there, we were wrong. User 1NormalUsername investigated the latest OnePlus 12 firmware, a build of OxygenOS 14, detecting evidence that it (still) no more bloatware.
These apps are third-party apps and might come preloaded on the device either as full apps or as shortcuts or APK stubs in the future. In the specialized media they mention some of them as ‘Fitbit‘, ‘Bubble Pop!‘, ‘Word Connect Wonders of sight‘, ‘Matching tiles‘, ‘Zomato‘o’Agoda‘.
For its part, OnePlus responded to Android Authority, leaving the following message:
Software preloads on OnePlus 12 were an error made during testing and were corrected on May 6. The OnePlus 12 doesn’t come preloaded with any of these apps and will still be light, fast, and smooth.
Apparently, the applications found in the future firmware of the OnePlus 12 come from a bug, although those of the initial setup. They also comment that in the case of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 the applications have been selected in such a way as not to affect the good performance of the device.
Without knowing the outcome of this story, this is not good news for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. Yes in the past OxygenOS was the benchmark of Android’s customization layers, it is now certainly affected. At least in our territory the situation does not seem so alarming, we will see if it changes.
Via | Android Authority
Cover image | Ricardo Aguilar for Xataka
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