Always-on Display has been a feature on several smartphones for a long time. Ironically, OnePlus devices never had a proper AOD implementation until the release of OxygenOS 11. The company, however, decided not to include this popular feature in the first Android 11-based Open Beta builds for the OnePlus 7 and 7T series that were released last week. According to the changelog, the feature is still under internal testing and it will be released in a subsequent Open Beta update for the OnePlus 7/7 Pro and the OnePlus 7T/7T Pro.

OnePlus 7 Forums ||| OnePlus 7 Pro Forums

OnePlus 7T Forums ||| OnePlus 7T Pro Forums

Well, XDA’s developer community has once again come to the rescue. The OEM has, in fact, left the code for the always-on display mode in the initial beta firmware, which can be exploited to unlock the feature on these devices. As discovered by XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899, all you need to do is execute the following command in a root shell to force the "OPFeatures" framework of OxygenOS to enable AOD.

        setprop sys.aod.debug_support_always_on 1
    

After executing the command and then reloading the system UI (using pkill systemui), the option to enable AOD will appear under Settings > Display > Ambient Display > Always on ambient display.

OnePlus 7-7T Android 11 Open Beta Always-on display enable

Keep in mind that the aforementioned process of bringing back always-on display doesn't survive a reboot, but it is possible to write a special init script to execute the command on boot. The good news is, Quinny899, who previously created OPAodMod, has also released a ready-to-use script which does exactly that. If you already have rooted your OnePlus 7/7T running OxygenOS 11 Open Beta using Magisk, you can follow this tutorial:

  1. Download the attachment from the first post of this thread.
    • Note that although the attachment is a ZIP file, it is neither a Magisk Module, nor a recovery-flashable ZIP.
  2. Extract the ZIP file to get the script named aodenable.sh out of it.
  3. Using a suitable root file manager, copy the script to /data/adb/service.d.
  4. Set its permissions to rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755).
  5. Do a reboot.
  6. That’s it!

In case you're not comfortable with the manual installation process, XDA Senior Member DanGLES3 has come up with a handy Magisk module, which does the same thing mentioned above. For further details, take a look at the discussion thread linked below.

Enable Always-on Display on Oxygen OS 11 Beta 1 for the OnePlus 7 and 7T series