OnePlus just launched its flagship OnePlus 8 series and, as expected, both the OnePlus 8 (review) and the OnePlus 8 Pro (review) are packed to the brim with top-of-the-line hardware. Along with the hardware improvements, the latest flagships from OnePlus also bring a much-awaited change on the software front — Google Discover feed integration.

We first learned that the OnePlus Launcher included a hidden toggle to replace the OnePlus Shelf on the "minus-one" or left-most screen with the Google Discover feed all the way back in 2018. While developers have since released modded versions of the OnePlus Launcher to enable the Discover feed on any OnePlus device, the company only offered the feature by default on U.S. carrier variants of its devices.  So far, only the T-Mobile OnePlus 6T, T-Mobile OnePlus 7 Pro, T-Mobile OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition, and the Sprint OnePlus 7 Pro 5G have had the Google Discover feed integration turned on by default. However, this changes with the OnePlus 8 series.

During the OnePlus 8 series launch event, the company revealed that the "minus-one" screen on the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro will almost always be the Google Discover feed. This was first reported by AndroidPolice, but we later confirmed it for ourselves by code analysis (see attached screenshot). According to the code, all OnePlus 8 devices will have the Google Discover feed enabled, except for OnePlus 8 devices in China (which is obvious because Google doesn't work there).

In case you're wondering if sideloading the OnePlus Launcher from the OnePlus 8 to an older OnePlus device would enable the feature, then we have some bad news for you. We've already given that a go and it doesn't seem to work unless the Google Discover feed is already enabled on the older device. As of now, OnePlus hasn't revealed if the feature will be released for older devices in the future.