Even though the new phone is on the horizon, OnePlus is still pushing out Open Beta releases for its 2016 flagships. Versions 17 and 8 (for the 3 and 3T, respectively) both bring the same changes, of which there are quite a few. As always, here's the changelog to accompany the updates.
New additions:
- Ambient display 2.0
- Lift up display
- Sharing functionality for Shot on OnePlus
- All new OnePlus Font (Available in English, Chinese, and Japanese only)
UI Improvements:
- Gallery v1.7
- Recorder v1.6
- Weather v1.7
- File Manager v1.7
- Other UI refinements
Optimizations:
- Enhanced launching speed of 3rd-party apps
- Optimized management of foreground and background processes
Other changes:
- Setup wizard adjusted to suit the style of Android 7.1
- Refined contact import process from SIM card, now supports dual numbers and an email address
- Automatically add corresponding country codes when making calls during roaming
- Updated Android Security Patch level to 1st May 2017
That's a lot of stuff there, much more so than some previous Open Beta releases. I am curious about the mention of Ambient Display 2.0 and the new OP font, though. Finally, what would an Open Beta be without optimizations? In this case, the new ones look more exciting than past iterations — launching third-party apps faster is very good and managing foreground/background tasks is something that OnePlus continues to improve upon.
The rest deals with UI enhancements and some quality-of-life improvements. If you're in the Open Beta track, then you should receive the update soon (some users are already reporting that they have it). If you're still on stable, but want to experience the new things, then you can flash the beta via adb sideload. It's also easy to go back, though it does require a full wipe. Hit up the link for your phone below to get started.