OnePlus Unveils Ambitious AI Strategy with New Features and Dedicated 'Plus Key'

OnePlus plans huge expansion of AI features on its phones, starting with 13s

OnePlus thrives on trends -- if other smartphone makers are doing something, you can bet OnePlus is going to have a take. The company recently confirmed it's ditching the storied alert slider in favor of an Apple-like shortcut button called the Plus Key, and that's not the only trend it'll chase with its latest phones. OnePlus has also announced an expanded collection of AI features for translation, photography, screen capture, and more. OnePlus isn't breaking new ground here, but it is cherry-picking some of the more useful AI features we've seen on other phones. The OnePlus approach covers most of the established AI use cases. There will be AI VoiceScribe, a feature that records and summarizes calls in popular messaging and video chat apps. Similarly, AI Call Assistant will record and summarize phone calls, a bit like Google's Pixel phones. However, these two features are India-only for now. Globally, OnePlus users will get AI Translation, which pulls together text, voice, camera, and screen translation into a single AI-powered app. AI Search, meanwhile, allows you to search for content on your phone and in OnePlus system apps in a "conversational" way. That suggests to us it's basically another chatbot on your phone, like Motorola's Ask and Search feature, which we didn't love. OnePlus also promises some AI smarts in the camera. AI Reframe will analyze what's in your viewfinder and suggest different framing options. AI Best Face 2.0 (which will roll out later this summer) will analyze and correct things like closed eyes or "suboptimal expressions." This sounds like a OnePlus version of Google's Best Take, but we're not complaining -- that's a great feature. The OnePlus can work with group shots of up to 20 people, and you can even feed it photos taken on other phones to fix everyone's face. Core to OnePlus' approach is a feature called AI Plus Mind, which is integrated with the Plus Key. It allows you to capture content on your screen and save it to an AI-curated "Mind Space." Again, OnePlus appears to be taking a page from Google's playbook with its own version of the Screenshots app. The OnePlus feature can allegedly extract useful information, like calendar appointments, so you don't have to add them to your agenda manually. A future update will also add automatic categorization of content in Mind Space. The company says it's using a hybrid approach to processing, which keeps sensitive data on your phone and only reaches out to the cloud when more power is needed. The specifics of the OnePlus system are still vague. Samsung includes a toggle to disable cloud processing, but Google just does what it thinks is right behind the scenes. We sure would like it if OnePlus borrowed from Samsung here. OnePlus is following Samsung's lead in at least one way. When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series, it included the first example of Gemini working across apps outside of Google's Pixel phones. Now, OnePlus will follow suit. As part of the OnePlus AI rollout, Gemini will gain the ability to interact with OnePlus apps like Notes and Clock. Many of these new OnePlus AI features will debut on the company's new OnePlus 13s, a variant of the China-only OnePlus 13T. However, the US and Europe are again being left out of the fun, with the 13s launching exclusively in India. Future OP devices will also be adopting the Plus Key, offering similar quick access to these AI features. Existing devices in the OnePlus 13 family will also get an update enabling most of these AI features. So even if you don't buy a new phone, you're getting more AI. Wipe that suboptimal expression off your face -- don't you know it's the AI era now?

Your OnePlus 13 Will Get a Dedicated AI 'Mind Space'. Here's What That Means

Katie is a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand. It's a non-negotiable right now that every phone maker out there must have a plan for integrating AI into its devices. OnePlus is a little late to the party, but it's arrived nonetheless. On Tuesday, the company announced plans for bringing its own vision of personalized AI to OnePlus phones, including the OnePlus 13. At a launch event in London last week, I not only got to see the first AI features to land on OnePlus phones in action, but learn about what the company's future plans are for bringing more complex and sophisticated AI features to its phones down the road. With all Android phone makers increasingly making use of best-in-class Qualcomm chips and relying on Google's Gemini AI, having a strong AI strategy is one way they can set themselves apart from rivals. I was impressed with how far OnePlus seems to be thinking ahead and didn't rush into going ham on AI. Its initial AI rollout will likely capture people's attention, even if its ideas aren't entirely original. OnePlus' statement AI tool is called Plus Mind, which can save, suggest, store and search based on what's currently on your phone screen, ultimately depositing the details in an app OnePlus is calling 'Mind Space'. Plus Mind can be activated at any time, either by a dedicated button (if your phone has one) or by a swipe-up gesture. If it spots details of an event or reservation, it will propose creating a calendar entry. Mind Space is a place to "organize your fragmented memories," said Arthur Lam, the company's director of OxygenOS and AI strategy. This is a hub where all of your most important content will live, and where AI search will allow you to find what you need without the information overload you may be used to, or automatically translate content in another language to make it accessible and searchable. Plus Mind will debut with the upcoming launch of the OnePlus 13s, a phone designed specifically for the Asian market, which comes with a dedicated AI button (the "Plus Key," as OnePlus is calling it) on the side of the phone. That means for those of in the US and Europe, we'll have to wait a little longer to enjoy OnePlus' vision for AI ourselves. It will eventually be rolling out to the OnePlus 13 as an over-the-air update later this year, although the company is yet to confirm exactly when. On the OnePlus 13, which shipped before the addition of the Plus Key, you instead have to use a three-fingered swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to activate the AI features. When I tested this in person it was hit or miss as to whether I could get it to work. There's definitely a knack to it -- you need to start from a couple of centimeters above lower rim -- and there's a high chance of accidentally displacing what's on the screen. It's clear that OnePlus designed Plus Mind to be used with a dedicated button, and no doubt all future OnePlus phones will feature a Plus Key of their own. It is a shame in retrospect though that the key is missing from its most widely available 2025 flagship phone. After using Plus Mind to save a variety of content, I had mixed opinions on how useful it was. The process of capturing and creating events out of details displayed on screen was seamless, and I found that I was able to use natural language within Mind Space to pull up the details of these events after the fact. But when saving articles I thought were interesting, Mind Space wasn't able to provide a summary of the entirety of what I'd been reading -- only of the specific text that was on screen at the time I activated Plus Mind. I also struggled to organise the content into collections within Mind Space. This is a manual process, rather than a situation in which the AI takes over to categorize everything you've saved. This feels a little like a missed opportunity. Like other Android phone makers, OnePlus has the benefit of tapping into the best of Google's Gemini phone tools, while also choosing what additional features it wants to bring to its phones to make them stand apart from its competitors. That said, its initial foray into AI with Mind Space is bound to draw comparisons to what Nothing is doing with Essential Space -- its own dedicated hub for saving content, snippets, links and reminders. Plus Mind and Mind Space represents just the first stage of what OnePlus' three-stage AI strategy. Next up is integrating a large language model (LLM) into Plus Mind, allowing your phone to understand your habits to create a "persona" it uses to understand you. "It will help you understand yourself," said Lam, and could even help you discover something "surprising" or "enlightening" about yourself. Stage three is where OnePlus plans to go full AI agent, turning a personal assistant that can know everything about you. But the company's not quite there just yet. In the meantime it has a few other ideas in the pipeline. Coming first to India (again, not the EU or the US), are AI VoiceScribe, which will provide you with a quick summary after your call on WhatsApp, Snapchat, Telegram, and AI Call Assistant, which provides you with in-call translation in both text and voice. On the more playful side, OnePlus is introducing two AI photo tools. The first, AI Best Face 2.0, will allow you to 'correct the faces of up 20 people in a group photo so that everyone is looking their best (if they have their eyes closed, for example, or what OnePlus describes as a "suboptimal expression"). AI Reframe, meanwhile, will analyze your carelessly shot holiday snaps and suggest creative cropping and framing to make it look like you weren't three cocktails deep when you shot them. These photo features will be come to OnePlus phones this summer, but for the major OnePlus AI tool rollout, you might have to wait a little longer.

OnePlus' new 'small' phone isn't coming to the US, but its AI features are

Jess Weatherbed is a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews. While the latest phone in the OnePlus 13 lineup is exclusive to India, the AI features that it comes with will be making their way to US users. The most notable is Plus Mind, which allows users to easily save information to a dedicated "Mind Space" instead of manually logging important dates or appointments. Schedules, reservations, event information, and other data can be extracted from images or text and then automatically added to a user's calendar, and then it can be quickly retrieved later using OnePlus' AI search feature. OnePlus says a new Plus Mind feature will be rolling out "later this year," which will automatically categorize saved information to help improve organization. Plus Mind will initially be available on the compact OnePlus 13S that's launching in India on June 5th, a variant of the 13T that was recently released in China. Both phones, which are unavailable in the US and Europe, have the new customizable Plus Key button, which replaces OnePlus' signature Alert Slider. Like the Alert Slider, Plus Key can be used to switch between normal, mute, and vibrate-only modes, alongside other actions like launching the camera, recording audio, or translation. Plus Mind will be rolled out to the rest of the OnePlus 13 series via a future software update, and the company says that more devices will follow. Plus Mind can be activated with the new Plus Key button or an upward three-finger swipe on older phones that lack the Plus Key, such as the OnePlus 13. Every OnePlus phone launching this year is expected to feature the new Plus Key. Alongside Plus Mind, OnePlus is developing a suite of AI tools, including an AI translation app that combines text, live voice, camera-based, and screen translation capabilities, and an image-reframing tool that analyzes photos to suggest the best cropping options. Another AI editing tool that's rolling out "this summer" will be able to automatically correct facial expressions and blinking. Two features that are only launching in India are AI VoiceScribe, which OnePlus says can "record, summarize, and translate calls and meetings" directly within messaging and meeting apps, and AI Call Assist, which provides automatic summaries and real-time translation during calls. The Verge reached out to OnePlus to ask if it's planning to roll out these features globally but we haven't heard back yet.

OnePlus' AI Plus Mind Wants to Be Your New Assistant: Here's How It Works

OnePlus lays out its vision for AI, which includes a screenshot-and-summarize tool for OnePlus 13 devices and a new Plus Key that replaces the familiar alert slider. OnePlus has been experimenting with AI in its smartphones for the last year, but the company is now making a bigger push by bringing more tools to its current flagships and future phones. Under the OnePlus AI banner, the company's new features will debut on the new OnePlus 13s. The phone is designed for the Asian market and won't launch in the US, but most new AI features are also set to come to the OnePlus 13 series in a future update. AI Plus Mind OnePlus' main focus here is a feature called AI Plus Mind. This allows you to screenshot whatever you see on your screen, and your phone makes a note of what it was for later while adding contextual AI info such as a link to the source, a summary of what it saw, and sometimes even links to other services. For example, if you take a screenshot of an article you're reading, it'll include a link to that piece and an AI summary about what it was able to view on the screen. Or, if you take a screenshot of a chat you had with a friend to meet at a restaurant, Plus Mind will understand the context and suggest that it generate a calendar entry for the meet-up. In a demo with the feature, we found that it adequately summarized what was on screen, but it excelled in specific scenarios, like the plans within a messaging app. We tried it with a PCMag article about Starlink's residential lite plan expanding to further states in the US. It summarized what it could see on screen, which was the headline, the first line of the article, the date, the image at the top, and the author. The AI summary gave some rough notes, but it mostly reworded the article's subhead. Our article read, "The more affordable $80-per-month plan is now available in parts of Alaska, California, and Texas." The AI notes from OnePlus said "Price: $80 per month" and "Availability: Alaska, California, and Texas." It also gave the article's author and the date it was published in bullet points. It then said the "Provider" was SpaceX, which wasn't as clear as the other elements of the summary. It finished with hashtags that noticed the article was about SpaceX, Starlink, and Technology News. Arthur Lam, OnePlus' director of OxygenOS and AI Strategy, tells PCMag the company is experimenting with ways for Plus Mind to look at a full web page for its summaries, which would make it more powerful than its current version. On the OnePlus 13s and likely future OnePlus devices, a dedicated Plus Key replaces the company's familiar alert slider. Pressing that button will automatically screenshot and add the content to Plus Mind. There's no dedicated Plus Mind app in your phone's app drawer, but when you first use the feature, it will add a shortcut to your home screen. It's unclear when the feature will arrive on the OnePlus 13 series, but when it does, it will be activated by swiping up on the phone's screen with three fingers. Show Your 'Best Face' Other new AI features from OnePlus include improved translation tools that combine text, audio, camera, and screen translation into one application. There's also an AI Reframe feature that analyzes your photography to determine when it would be better to edit or crop it. An upcoming update to the company's Best Face tool will replace people's faces with better ones from other photographs. The new Best Face 2.0 now allows up to 20 faces to be edited through the feature to remove issues like people blinking or making silly faces. AI VoiceScribe, meanwhile, records and summarizes meetings within popular messaging apps, but that feature is not coming to the US. Private Computing Cloud The company will prioritize on-device processing for highly sensitive information, but OnePlus says some tasks will require it to use cloud tech (similar to Apple Intelligence). In those scenarios, it will use its new Private Computing Cloud feature. Details are scarce on how this works, but OnePlus says, "When more intensive computation is required, the company's Private Computing Cloud provides a secure, encrypted environment for data processing, designed to keep user data private and inaccessible to unauthorized parties. "This is achieved through a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) that spans the user's device, the cloud servers, and the data transfer process itself." Don't expect all these AI features to be available in one application. The company confirmed to PCMag it has no plans to make a dedicated OnePlus AI app. "In five years from now, we will not see different features as AI-powered," Lam said. "Everything will be AI-powered. We want to tell you about the experience and lifestyle to make sense of it from that perspective."

OnePlus unleashes a huge wave of AI tools for its smartphones to make your life a lot easier

Summary OnePlus introduces OnePlus AI suite with customizable Plus Key for smartphones, starting with India-exclusive OnePlus 13s. OnePlus AI tools include VoiceScribe, Call Assistant, Translation, Search, Reframe, and Best Face 2.0 for enhanced user experience. AI Plus Mind tool combines thoughts with on-screen info to aid in note-taking, scheduling, and digital organization, promising increased productivity. As the mobile AI wars wage on, companies worldwide are developing their own versions of AI assistants. Not to be left behind, OnePlus has announced its huge "OnePlus AI" suite as part of its initiative to bring common AI benefits to its smartphones. And while some features won't be available to all countries (at least to begin with), the announced AI tools sound like genuinely helpful tools that will help people in their day-to-day lives. Related The OnePlus Slim Magnetic Power Bank is perfect for people on the go You can also score money off if you own, or want to buy, a OnePlus 13. Posts 3 OnePlus announces its big AI initiative, including OnePlus AI In an emailed press release, OnePlus broke down everything it's planning with its push for AI. One of the most notable changes is a new "Plus Key," a physical button on the side of your phone. This will first debut with the India-only OnePlus 13s, but the company plans to roll it out "across all OnePlus smartphones launching this year." You can customise the Plus Key to perform common actions with your phone, such as opening the camera or starting a translation. It's also the gateway for launching the new AI Plus Mind tool, which combines your thoughts and considerations with the information presented on-screen to help you take notes, schedule dates, and keep your digital organization in check. Definitely something I can see myself putting to good use with my own scheduling. The company also announced a huge array of AI tools for you to try, and they all sound great: AI VoiceScribe (coming to India only): Enables users to record, summarize, and translate calls and meetings directly within popular messaging, video, and online meeting applications. AI Call Assistant (coming to India only): On the OnePlus 13s, the OnePlus Dialer will offer options for automatic Call Summaries or real-time Call Translation during calls. AI Translation: Consolidates all translation capabilities - text, live voice, camera-based, and screen translation - into a single, intuitive app, making it easier to understand foreign languages and connect globally. AI Search: AI Search enables conversational, natural language queries, seamlessly searching local files, settings, notes, and calendars for contextually relevant results. Integrated with AI Plus Mind, it enhances productivity through intuitive, interactive searches. AI Reframe: Intelligently analyzes photo scenes, identifies the subject, and adjusts composition, generating multiple creative framing options for users to choose from. AI Best Face 2.0 (coming this summer via OTA): Enhances group photos by automatically detecting and correcting issues like closed eyes or suboptimal expressions for more polished results. This feature supports images with up to 20 individuals and works even with photos captured on other devices. If you're unfamiliar with the OnePlus range, we have praised it in the past. In our choices of the best phones in 2025, we gave two of its devices the "best affordable flagship" and "best value pick" crowns, and we called the OnePlus 13 "the iPhone killer we always wanted."

OnePlus is replacing its Alert Slider with, yes, an AI button

OnePlus has revealed its artificial intelligence plans for its devices, starting with the introduction of the Plus Key, which will replace the Alert Slider. The Plus Key, like its predecessor, is a physical button that users can customize to launch the camera, to initiate translations or to start recording. More importantly, it launches the new AI Plus Mind feature, which can record and recall information found on screen. When a user wants to take note of important information such as schedules, event details, reservations or listings, for instance, they can press the Plus Key to activate AI Plus Mind and save those details. (Take note that the feature can extract details from both images and texts.) Alternatively, they can swipe up on the screen with three fingers. What AI Plus Mind does is save relevant content to a dedicated Mind Space, where users can browse various information that they've saved. Users can then search for the detail they want to find using natural language queries. Both the Plus Key and the AI Plus Mind will debut on the OnePlus 13s in Asia. AI Plus Mind will roll out to the rest of the OnePlus 13 Series devices through a future software update, while all future OnePlus phone will come with the new physical key. Notably, the new button and feature bear similarities to Nothing's physical Essential Key that can also save information inside the Essential Space app. Nothing was founded by Carl Pei who co-founded OnePlus. The company is also developing several tools for the OnePlus AI, including AI VoiceScribe that enables users to "record, summarize and translate calls and meetings directly within popular messaging, video, and online meeting applications." AI Translation will consolidate the brand's translation capabilities via text, live voice, camera and screen into one app, sort of like Google Translate. AI Search will enable natural language queries to search for local files and notes. Meanwhile, AI Best Face 2.0, which is coming this summer, can correct issues like closed eyes in group photos.

OnePlus phones are getting AI tools that are bound to make Galaxy and Pixel fans jealous

The OnePlus AI suite also includes localized tools to help users record, summarize, and translate calls and offer real-time call translations. Earlier this year, OnePlus confirmed plans to replace the alert slider with a customizable button on future phones. At the time, the company's CEO, Pete Lau, said this new button would allow users to switch sound profiles without waking up the device and offer a few additional features. OnePlus has now revealed that the customizable button, the Plus Key, will debut on the upcoming OnePlus 13s and let users switch sound profiles, launch the camera, initiate translation, start recordings, or activate the new AI Plus Mind feature.

OnePlus takes a page from Nothing with its newest feature

While similar to Nothing's Essential Key and Essential Space, OnePlus offers greater flexibility through button remapping and gesture controls. These days, Android flagships are more than just specifications, with companies being very bullish on AI features and their potential to improve the conventional phone experiences. OnePlus had already jumped on the AI bandwagon with features like AI Eraser and AI Summary that arrived with Oxygen OS 14 and 15. Now, OnePlus is consolidating the plethora of its AI features under the OnePlus AI branding, adding Gemini support to its stock apps, and launching the new AI Plus Mind feature, which will debut with the OnePlus 13s.

My Favorite Feature in OnePlus Phones Just Got Killed

Summary OnePlus is phasing out the iconic alert slider in favor of a customizable "Plus Key." The Plus Key can replicate alert slider functions and be used for AI features. Users can remap the Plus Key for various functions, adding versatility to OnePlus phones. The alert slider is probably one of the more iconic features of OnePlus phones. It has been there ever since the very first OnePlus One was released over a decade ago, and it's seen by some as a selling point because of the convenience it provides. The writing has been in the wall for some time, but now it's confirmed -- it's dead. OnePlus has confirmed that it will be phasing out the alert slider in future hardware releases in favor of a new customizable "Plus Key." The alert slider allowed you to quickly and easily switch between three sound profiles by switching the slider between three different modes: silent, vibrate only, and full ring mode. It's a dedicated hardware feature that allows you to switch between sound profiles without having to unlock your phone and go into your sound settings to turn on do not disturb mode or switch to vibrate mode. It's similar in concept to the ring/silent switch that used to come with iPhones. It's also something that wasn't really replicated by any big Android manufacturer, so it remained a cool selling point of OnePlus phones since you could just reach for your phone in your pocket to change sound profiles, making it as effortless as it can be. Sadly, it's now gone. Just like the iPhone replaced its own switch with a side button, OnePlus is, too, adding a side button of its own as a replacement, the "Plus Key." While capable of replicating the alert slider's traditional functions, OnePlus really wants you to use it as an AI button of sorts that brings up an AI feature of your choice. A cursed concept, I know, but hey, AI is trendy right now. One of the features OnePlus is positioning for this button is "Plus Mind," which allows you to "save, catalog, and recall key information found on the screen." You'll be able to remap this button to whatever you want, so thankfully, it won't just be a dead button if you decide you don't want to use AI on your phone. You probably can't restore the full functionality of the good old alert slider, but you can set it as a shortcut for quickly enabling/disabling do not disturb mode, which is good enough. You can also set it to other things, such as launching your camera or recording audio. Related OnePlus Watch 3 Review: Smartwatch Battery Life Doesn't Have to Suck No more nightly charging routine. Posts 2 Some people might find the Plus Key to have more value than the old alert slider since it's way more versatile, but as a former owner of a OnePlus phone, I will miss it anyway. The new Plus Key is present on the OnePlus 13T, which is not seeing a US release, but it will probably also be present on the upcoming OnePlus 14, which will, more than certainly, be available stateside. Source: 9to5Google, Android Authority

OnePlus will ditch Alert Slider across 'all' its new smartphones alongside major AI push

As previously announced, OnePlus will be replacing its iconic Alert Slider, with the new "Plus Key" officially coming to "all" of the brand's new smartphones going forward alongside a major push into AI features. The Alert Slider has been a staple of most OnePlus smartphones for the better part of a decade now, but it's being replaced with a customizable new button called the "Plus Key." This will debut first on the OnePlus 13s in India, the compact flagship that previously launched as the OnePlus 13T in China and will not be expanding to the US or Europe. OnePlus says the Plus Key is "planned to rollout across all OnePlus smartphones launching this year," meaning the next OnePlus flagship will certainly be making the swap. While the Key can replicate the Alert Slider's functionality, OnePlus is making a big push out of its ability to trigger AI features, including "Plus Mind," a feature that can "save, catalog, and recall key information found on the screen," just like Nothing's Essential Space. OnePlus explains: When users find information that they wish to retain - such as schedules, event details, reservations, or listings - they can capture it by pressing the Plus Key or swiping up with three fingers. AI Plus Mind intelligently saves the relevant on-screen content to a dedicated Mind Space, helping users streamline their experience by capturing precisely what's needed and keeping it organized in one accessible location. This feature will be coming to OnePlus 13 and 13R in the future, but obviously without the hardware shortcut. Beyond this, OnePlus has a host of other AI features in the works, and is adding Gemini integration with its own apps - something Oppo announced earlier this month. New AI features coming to OnePlus devices include: OnePlus notes that it "prioritizes on-device processing within a trusted environment" and leverages a "Private Computing Cloud" for "more intensive" tasks. There's no set date for when these added AI features will be launching outside of Best Face's "Summer" window.

OnePlus' new Plus Key gives users a hardware link to AI, replacing the fan-favorite Alert Slider

The Plus Key will come to all OnePlus phones launching this year OnePlus has announced OnePlus AI, and while the Chinese company's vision for mobile artificial intelligence comes mainly via new software, the list of changes includes an update to one of the brand's most iconic hardware features. The new Plus Key is a physical button that replaces the three-stage Alert Slider. The button can be customized in settings to activate one of several features, like opening the camera or starting a live translation. The new hardware feature will make its debut with the OnePlus 13s, a China-only model previously known as the OnePlus 13 Mini in online rumor circles. OnePlus has confirmed the Plus Key will come to all OnePlus smartphones rolling out this year - at a minimum we'd expect this to include the rumored OnePlus 14 and OnePlus 14R, which based on prior releases we'd expect to launch in China at the end of 2025 for global launch in 2026. Though note that OnePlus might skip the number 14 and call this the OnePlus 15 series instead. By default, the Plus Key activates the new AI Plus Mind capture system, which saves a screenshot, plus an AI summary of the on-screen information, in the new AI Plus Mind app. It's this, alongside the timing of this hardware announcement, that illustrates OnePlus' vision of the Plus Key as a part of the company's AI strategy. At the official OnePlus AI reveal event, I spoke with Arthur Lam, director of OxygenOS and AI strategy at OnePlus, about how the Plus Key and AI Plus Mind work together. "The thought process behind it was we wanted to bring AI that can empower you to do different things. And I think one of the biggest things was we live in this digital age where we have a lot of fragmented memories across multiple places" said Lam. "We believe that this is not a software-only solution," Lam continued, "it's a hardware-software solution; that makes it uniquely OnePlus." When OnePlus announced the end of the Alert Slider, I wrote that I'd always found it to be a useful and charismatic addition to the brand's handsets. However, even with the Alert Slider's fan-favorite status, Lam tells me the company is confident that it's time for an update. "People ask us, 'after using the Alert Slider for a decade, why are you changing it?' Because now is the time, because it's connected with your AI Plus Mind." "It makes sense for us to make changes. Even though we've been there for the last decade, and many of the users love it, we think it's time for us to evolve it to the next generation." There's more to OnePlus AI than just the Plus Key and AI Plus Mind - upcoming features include AI Translation, an AI Reframe tool for cropping photos, and AI VoiceScribe, which automatically transcribes phone calls. With that said, the Plus Key is the most fully-fledged AI hardware feature we've seen on a smartphone so far - this AI-first approach could help OnePlus to differentiate the Plus Key from the iPhone's Action Button, which clearly served as inspiration. It's also telling that OnePlus is willing to cut a well-loved feature like the Alert Slider for the AI-focused Plus Key. This suggests that OnePlus AI could be a major priority for the brand going forwards. Personally, I'm a fan of the Alert Slider, but I think AI Plus Mind is a great idea, and a good enough feature to make the Plus Key seem novel and genuinely useful. Be sure to keep up with our phones coverage for the latest updates as the Plus Key comes to more of the best OnePlus phones. What do you think of the Plus Key? Will you miss the Alert Slider? Let us know in the comments below.

OnePlus unveils AI Plus Mind, and I think this might be the best use of AI in a smartphone yet

OnePlus has just unveiled a new AI-powered life organization tool that might be the best use of smartphone artificial intelligence I've seen yet. The new feature, AI Plus Mind, is part of OnePlus' new AI vision, which sees the company push towards a more personalized AI, which will give users powerful tools that aim to enhance their lives. OnePlus says AI Plus Mind will "intelligently save the relevant on-screen content to a dedicated Mind Space, helping users combat information overload by capturing precisely what's needed and keeping it organized in one accessible location." AI Plus Mind is built into the new Plus Key, a customizable button that replaces the Alert slider, launching first with the OnePlus 13s in Asia and coming to future OnePlus smartphones in the US and EU in the future. By simply pressing the Plus Key, you'll be able to quickly save, catalog, and recall key information from your screen. OnePlus says the new feature, "marks a major step towards delivering truly personalized AI." AI Plus Mind is just a button press away on new OnePlus devices with the Plus Key. For the OnePlus 13, the current flagship, which doesn't have the customizable button, you'll be able to swipe up with three fingers at any point to screen capture. Once you've taken a screenshot of whatever information you want to retain, like schedules, event details, reservations, or maybe an article, AI Plus Mind analyzes content contextually and determines what to do with it. OnePlus' example is the ability to "extract schedule details from an image or text and add them directly to the user's calendar." Alongside an improved AI Search, which is integrated into AI Plus Mind, you'll be able to retain information more than ever before. The Nothing Phone 3a's Essential Key works similarly, although with OnePlus' flagship specs and the company's aim to give users the best AI experience possible, AI Plus Mind sounds like more of a complete package than Nothing's equivalent. At the OnePlus AI reveal, we spoke with Arthur Lam, Director of OxygenOS and AI Strategy at OnePlus, about how AI Plus Mind feels like the next step in the evolution of the screenshot. Lam said, "Well, the thought process behind it was that we wanted AI to empower you to do different things. We live in this digital age where we have a lot of fragmented memories across multiple places, multiple apps, multiple services." Starting with the problem, the OnePlus AI team then opted to find a solution that would not only showcase the power of AI but also have a genuine impact on users' lives. "How do we use AI to organise our mind, capture it, process it, and empower the user to do different things? I think that was the starting point. That's why you see us using the Plus Key, and we believe that this is not a software-only solution," Lam continued, "it's a hardware-software solution; that makes it uniquely OnePlus." AI Plus Mind might be the standout feature of the new AI tools coming to OnePlus smartphones, but the company also revealed some other new uses for AI coming soon: AI Plus Mind will debut on the OnePlus 13s before a wider rollout starting with the rest of the OnePlus 13 family of devices. Future OnePlus devices will also benefit from this exciting AI functionality.

OnePlus Ditching That Alert Slider You Love For This AI Button

We may earn a commission when you click links to retailers and purchase goods. More info. OnePlus dropped a couple of announcements this morning that will pave the way for the rest of their launches throughout 2025. The first is an introduction of the "Plus Key," which will replace their beloved Alert Slider as a bit of an AI do-it-all-button, while the 2nd is also AI related and includes a set of features you may or may not see depending on which part of the world you live in. OnePlus had previously announced that the Alert Slider was on the way out, but today they've made the Plus Key official as a button that will arrive with future devices. They are debuting the new Plus Key on the OnePlus 13s, a device launching in India only. However, it will "rollout across all OnePlus smartphones launching this year." If we get a OnePlus 14, it'll have this Plus Key. So what does the OnePlus Plus Key do? It is a customizable button that can do everything from changing sound profiles to launching the camera or start a recording. But for OnePlus, they really want you to use it to fire up their new "AI Plus Mind," which sounds a lot like an advanced version of Nothing's Essential Space. The similarities between these two companies...huh. Anyways, by using the Plus Key to activate AI Plus Mind, you can save on-screen info to the "Mind Space." This is basically an app that organizes whatever you've captured from your screen to help you recover information later, make it searchable, etc. Again, it's exactly like Nothing's Essential Space and also like Google's Screenshots app on Pixel phones. OnePlus AI is also here as the second big announcement today. OnePlus is going all-in on AI, just as everyone else is, and they have a handful of features coming to the phone. Rather than rewrite them all in my own words and potentially mess something up, here's how OnePlus describes each: Additionally, OnePlus announced that they will soon offer deeper integration with Google Gemini. They are moving to have Gemini and OxygenOS apps work closely together, like Google's suite of apps does to give you a better AI experience. This is "coming soon." To recap, OnePlus made the Plus Key super official on all future devices and has new AI features you might be able to play with depending on your country.

OnePlus 13s Will Let You Control Its AI Suite Using the New Plus Key

AI Plus Mind can also be activated by swiping up with three fingers OnePlus 13s is set to launch in India on June 5 and the company unveiled OnePlus AI, it's new artificial intelligence (AI) suite for its devices on Tuesday. The Chinese smartphone maker also revealed the functionalities of the new Plus Key, which is confirmed to debut on the upcoming OnePlus 13s. The hardware button can be used for several utility features, as well as to activate a couple of AI tools. Among them is the new AI Plus Mind feature, which lets users quickly save, catalogue, and resurface on-device content. Similar to Galaxy AI or Apple Intelligence, the new OnePlus AI branding is an umbrella term for all the AI features on the company's devices. Notably, the consumer tech brand began offering AI features in its devices with the rollout of the OxygenOS 15 update. The first new feature to be released as part of OnePlus AI is called AI Plus Mind. The company describes it as a catalogue tool where users can quickly save any on-screen information as screenshots. Users can go to the Mind Space tool to resurface information from the saved screenshots using natural language queries. While it sounds like Microsoft's Recall feature, it only works when the user manually activates it. OnePlus highlighted that the feature can not only capture screenshots, but also analyse images using computer vision. Providing an example, the company said, the AI Plus Mind feature can extract schedule details from an image and add them directly to the user's calendar. Additionally, the feature will also automatically categorise saved content later this year. Notably, the AI Plus Mind feature will first debut on the OnePlus 13s, and will later be expanded to the entire OnePlus 13 lineup via an over-the-air (OTA) update. Apart from this, OnePlus also announced that its first-party apps will now be integrated with Google's Gemini. With this, users can ask the Gemini AI assistant to complete tasks across apps such as the OnePlus Notes, Clock, and more. There's no word from the company on when this integration will be rolled out to users. In March, Oppo unveiled the Private Computing Cloud (PCC), which is a more secure way for users to share data with cloud-based AI tools. It implements measures such as encryption and the trusted execution environment (TEE) to keep data safe while storing it on the cloud. OnePlus has now confirmed that it will also implement PCC for some OnePlus AI features. Apart from AI announcements, OnePlus has finally detailed the functionalities of the Plus Key. The customisable hardware button, which replaces the alert slider, can be programmed for actions such as switching sound profiles, launching the camera, or starting recordings. Additionally, the button will also activate the new AI Plus Mind feature, as well as the existing AI translations feature.

OnePlus dumps its famous Alert Slider but it's for one very good reason | Stuff

The Plus Key is coming instead to future OnePlus phones - but what is it? Here are all the answers... If you've ever owned a OnePlus flagship phone then you'll be familiar with the alert slider - it's an easy way to switch the phone into silent when it's in your pocket and it's always been a feature I'm surprised more Android phone makers didn't adopt. Now though, the button has been axed, starting with the OnePlus 13s which will be available in India after a 5 June launch. This phone isn't coming to the US or Europe, though it will have implications for countries outside India since it's the first OnePlus phone to replace the Alert Slider with a new button - known as the Plus Key. And to avoid any confusion, the company confirmed it will be coming to "all OnePlus smartphones launching this year." However, the main use for it is to add webpages, messages and other bookmarkable info to a baked-in feature known as the Plus Mind. Nothing also has something similar, known as Essential Space. Essentially, it's a bit like a catalog for all your key info, an alternative to saving things in apps like Google Keep or Microsoft OneNote. Much like other vendors, OnePlus is toting this as increased personalisation This transition is very similar to the Action Button change on Apple's iPhone and like that button you can also choose its function (so you can keep using it to silence your phone if you want), start the camera or begin translation. And, if you map the button to an alternative use, you can swipe up with three fingers to add things to your Plus Mind instead. This gesture means that Plus Mind will also come to the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R as well (since there is obviously no dedicated Plus Key) via a software update. You're also able to use the feature to extract information. So it could use it to extract event info from an image and add it to your calendar for example. Of course, this is all part of OnePlus AI - the company's somewhat belated push into AI features. But while it might be somewhat later than many rivals, it is offering a lot of the same features as others. And aside from some image editing shortcuts, there's no real evidence that AI tricks are proving a hit with consumers. OnePlus is also adding Google Gemini integration, similar to parent company Oppo and it will work across OnePlus' own apps as well as Google's ones. On device AI processing is prioritised where more sensitive information is used, although the company states that its own private cloud will keep data private. The company also says it recently rolled out support for Oppo's O+ Connect for the OnePlus 13R which enables uses to do file transfers and more between their OnePlus device and MacOS computer, either through the O+ Connect app, or via a drag and drop interface in the Finder.

OnePlus AI Unveiled: AI Plus Mind, AI VoiceScribe, and More

There are a suite of new AI features coming to your OnePlus device soon. OnePlus India has just announced OnePlus AI. While OnePlus already had AI (artificial intelligence) features integrated on the device, this will take it a notch ahead. There are a suite of new AI features coming to your OnePlus device soon. It will all likely start with the OnePlus 13s. The OnePlus 13s is going to come with the Plus Key, a customisable button that we saw on the OnePlus 13T in China. This Plus Key will allow users to activate the AI Plus Mind. Let's see what this is. Read More - OnePlus 13s will Have this World's First Chip The AI Plus Mind is a feature designed to help you remember important info. If you forget important stuff that's on your screen, you can just ask the AI Plus Mind to remember it. You can activate the AI Plus Mind via the Plus Key on your phone or by swiping up with three fingers. The Plus Key will be featured on all the OnePlus devices that are going to launch this year. The AI Plus Mind is sort of like what Apple has tried to implement with the Apple Intelligence and Siri but hasn't been able to yet. OnePlus said, "the Plus Key also activates AI Plus Mind, a new feature designed to quickly save, catalog, and recall key information found on the screen. This capability marks a major step towards delivering truly personalized AI. When users find information they wish to retain - such as schedules, event details, reservations, or listings - they can capture it by pressing the Plus Key or swiping up with three fingers. AI Plus Mind intelligently saves the relevant on-screen content to a dedicated Mind Space, helping users combat information overload by capturing precisely what is needed and keeping it organized in one accessible location." AI Plus Mind can also understand the content on the screen contextually. OnePlus 13 series will get this feature via updates in the near future. There are a suite of new AI features. Mentioned below are all of them. Read More - OnePlus 13s to Come with an Upgraded Front Camera Further, OnePlus has annnounced that OnePlus has worked with Google to integrate Gemini with the OnePlus Notes, Clock and more. While OnePlus will prioritise processing most AI related information and data on the device, when something needs to be sent to cloud, it will be done in a highly secure environment.

OnePlus AI with Plus Key and AI Plus Mind for personalized experience unveiled

OnePlus today introduces OnePlus AI, which the company described as "Intelligently Yours." This marks a new phase in OnePlus's strategy to deliver personalized artificial intelligence experiences. Alongside this, OnePlus announced the Plus Key, a customizable hardware button debuting on the upcoming OnePlus 13s, along with a broad set of AI tools designed to improve productivity, creativity, and user privacy. As the next evolution after the familiar Alert Slider, the Plus Key can be set to perform tasks like switching sound modes, opening the camera, starting translations, or launching recordings. At the center of this update is AI Plus Mind, which activates either with the Plus Key or a three-finger swipe. It lets users save and organize important on-screen information -- such as events, bookings, or listings -- into a dedicated Mind Space, helping avoid information overload. Beyond simple saving, AI Plus Mind uses artificial intelligence to understand the context of saved content. For example, it can pull event details from an image or message and add them directly to the user's calendar. Using AI Search, users will be able to locate saved content through natural language questions. Additionally, OnePlus intends to add automatic sorting features to AI Plus Mind before the end of the year. The company noted that OnePlus AI includes several new tools they are actively developing, all aimed at enhancing the user experience: OnePlus also announced deeper integration with Google Gemini. Soon, Gemini will work across OnePlus apps like Notes and Clock, as well as Google apps, creating a unified AI experience. Gemini Live will allow real-time conversations about what the phone's camera sees or what's displayed on the screen. OnePlus emphasized its focus on privacy with its Private Computing Cloud (PCC). For sensitive tasks, AI processing runs securely on the device. If cloud processing is needed, the PCC keeps all data encrypted and protected through a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) that secures the entire process -- from device to cloud servers. The company said its goal is to deliver "deeply personalized and secure AI experiences" through innovations like the Plus Key, AI Plus Mind, and PCC, aiming to create an AI system that fits naturally into daily life. The company confirmed that AI Plus Mind will launch first on the OnePlus 13s on June 5, 2025, followed by a software update for other OnePlus 13 Series devices, with plans to expand to more models later.