OnePlus phones sold in China come with HydrogenOS instead of the OxygenOS skin. These two user interfaces share a somewhat common codebase, which means you can easily cross-flash the HydrogenOS package on the international variant of a OnePlus phone, albeit you will miss Google Play Services or any pre-installed Google apps. Now, you can finally take a look and experience the upcoming iteration of these skins when rebased on top of Android 11, as OnePlus is offering the first set of HydrogenOS 11 builds for the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro.

XDA Forums: OnePlus 8 || OnePlus 8 Pro

While the company did publish Android 11-based beta builds for the OnePlus 8 family in the past, today's release is rather significant. As teased by a week ago, these HydrogenOS 11 builds are more-or-less feature complete. OnePlus has integrated a bunch of custom functionalities, including the long-anticipated always-on display support, with all the typical new features that Google offers with Android 11, thus you should treat it like the near-final version of OnePlus' take on Android 11.

The complete changelog of this update is as follows:

According to OnePlus, the HydrogneOS 11 builds for the OnePlus 8 series are still based on the second Developer Preview build of Android 11. They are strictly meant for the developers, so the OEM has yet to include them under the "Open Beta" program.


Download: HydrogenOS 11 Developer Preview for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro

Caution: The builds are not intended to be used by end-users. These builds are early releases and may contain bugs and various instabilities. They also wipe your device completely, so it is highly recommended that you backup your data before proceeding. Please exercise your own discretion.

You can download the builds from the links below. Downgrade builds are also mentioned:

To install, download the appropriate package for your phone from the link above. Then go to Settings > System > System Updates, and then click on the top-right icon and select Local Upgrade option. From there, select the update package that you have downloaded and proceed. The update should successfully flash on your device.

Buy from Amazon.in: OnePlus 8 || OnePlus 8 Pro

In case you don't feel comfortable installing HydrogenOS, a similar Developer Preview of OxygenOS for the OnePlus 8/8 Pro is on its way as well.


Source: OnePlus China Forums