OnePlus to Phase Out Iconic Alert Slider for New ‘Plus Key’ and Major AI Integration
OnePlus has made a significant shift by deciding to discontinue its signature Alert Slider across all upcoming smartphone releases, replacing this nearly decade-old hardware staple with a new customisable button called the “Plus Key.” This change will coincide with a major push into artificial intelligence (AI) features across the company’s product lineup.
Alert Slider Replaced by Customisable ‘Plus Key’
The “Plus Key” will first debut on the highly anticipated OnePlus 13s in India, a compact flagship model understood to be the global variant of the OnePlus 13T previously launched in China. Notably, the company confirmed that the OnePlus 13s will not be available in the US or European markets. OnePlus plans to roll out the “Plus Key” on all smartphones it launches this year, indicating that its next flagship device will also feature the new button.
Focus on AI Integration with ‘Plus Mind’ Leading the Charge
While the “Plus Key” will retain the Alert Slider’s core functionality of quickly switching between notification profiles, OnePlus is heavily emphasising its ability to trigger a suite of new AI-powered features. Leading this charge is “Plus Mind,” an innovative feature designed to capture, organise, and retrieve key information displayed on the user’s screen.
OnePlus elaborated on “Plus Mind,” stating that users can save crucial details such as schedules, event information, reservations, or listings by either pressing the “Plus Key” or performing a three-finger swipe-up gesture. The AI-powered system will then intelligently store this content in a dedicated “Mind Space,” aiming to streamline the user experience by keeping essential information readily accessible in a single location. While the “Plus Key” offers a hardware shortcut for this feature, OnePlus confirmed that “Plus Mind” will also be available on the future OnePlus 13 and 13R models, albeit without the dedicated button.
New Suite of AI Features Unveiled
Beyond “Plus Mind,” OnePlus has unveiled a comprehensive array of other AI functionalities currently in development, including integration with Google’s Gemini AI model within its native applications.
The upcoming AI features for OnePlus devices include:
- AI VoiceScribe (India exclusive): This feature will allow users in India to record, summarise, and translate audio from calls and meetings directly within popular messaging, video conferencing, and online meeting applications.
- AI Call Assistant (India exclusive): On the OnePlus 13s, the native OnePlus Dialer app will offer the options for automatic call summaries and real-time translation during phone conversations.
- AI Translation: This feature consolidates all translation capabilities, encompassing text, live voice, camera-based translation, and screen translation, into a unified and user-friendly application to facilitate global communication.
- AI Search: This enhanced search functionality will enable users to perform conversational, natural language queries to seamlessly search local files, settings, notes, and calendar entries for contextually relevant results. It will be integrated with “AI Plus Mind” to further enhance productivity through intuitive and interactive searches.
- AI Reframe: This intelligent photo editing tool will analyse photo scenes, identify the main subject, and automatically adjust the composition, providing users with multiple creative framing options to choose from.
AI Best Face 2.0 (coming this summer via OTA): This upgrade to the existing “Best Face” feature will improve group photos by automatically detecting and correcting issues such as closed eyes or unflattering expressions, resulting in more polished final images. It will support photos with up to 20 individuals and will even work with images captured on other devices.
Privacy and Processing
OnePlus emphasised its commitment to user privacy, stating that it “prioritises on-device processing within a trusted environment” and utilises a “Private Computing Cloud” for more computationally intensive AI tasks.
