Update 1 (09/12/2021 @ 11:19 PM ET): OPPO has confirmed the China launch date for ColorOS 12 based on Android 12. Click here for more information. The article, as published on August 27, 2021, is preserved below.

With the final release of Android 12 fast approaching, major smartphone OEMs are gearing up to bring the next major release of Android to their smartphones. As usual, Google’s Pixel lineup will be the first to get a taste of the new software. However, we wouldn't be surprised if some OEMs announce the release of Android 12 for their top flagship on the same day as Google. It looks like OPPO could be one of the first to release the new version of its custom skin based on Android 12.

OPPO has been working on Android 12 for some time now. In May, the company rolled out an Android 12 beta for the OPPO Find X3, though it wasn’t based on ColorOS 12. While OPPO hasn’t revealed an official date for the ColorOS 12 rollout, a fresh leak (via GSMArena) has now revealed that OPPO might unveil the next major version of its custom skin as soon as next month.

OPPO's Breeno voice assistant showing a message in Chinese

The news was confirmed by OPPO’s digital assistant Breeno (only available on Chinese models). When a Weibo user asked the voice assistant when OPPO was going to launch ColorOS 12, it replied that “ColorOS 12 is coming” and will be released on September 13 at 3:00 AM Eastern Time. Since the news started making rounds on the internet, OPPO removed that response. Instead, the assistant now replies with, “to be revealed soon, please stay tuned.”

If this leak is indeed true, it would mean that the public release of Android 12 is only a few weeks away. It's possible OPPO's ColorOS 12 announcement might take place on the same day as Google. Either way, with the leaked date just two weeks away at this point, we won't have to wait long.

Apart from OPPO, Samsung is another major OEM that plans to release a beta of Android 12 next month. We should be hearing about more releases soon.


Update 1: China launch date confirmed

OPPO has confirmed on Weibo that ColorOS 12 based on Android 12 will be announced this Thursday, September 16. The launch will take place in China at 6:00 PM local time (6:00 AM ET), and the company will likely release its first ColorOS 12 beta for the Find X3 series on that date. The ColorOS 12 China stable update likely won't be available for a few weeks, seeing as Google themselves haven't released the Android 12 stable update for Pixel phones. Google has tentatively scheduled the Android 12 stable release for October 4th according to our sources, so we can expect the stable ColorOS 12 update to roll out in China sometime after. The global launch date of ColorOS 12 will likely come a few weeks after that.

ColorOS 12 launch teaser