OnePlus has decided to sacrifice the alert slider, and some people are quite triggered by that. OnePlus made that announcement in quite a lengthy OnePlus Community post. In fact, the company’s CEO, Pete Lau, did that. In his own words, the “Alert Slider has always been one of my favorite OnePlus features. It’s simple, intuitive, and just works.” That is very true and is actually a reason why so many people got triggered by this announcement.
OnePlus is divorcing the alert slider after 10 years of a successful marriage
Just to give you a bit of a back story. The alert slider has been a part of OnePlus’ high-end smartphones since 2015, with the exception of the OnePlus 10T. In other words, it has been a part of OnePlus phones for 10 years, since the company’s second-gen flagship arrived, the OnePlus 2. That is a long time to have a feature that people truly love, to just scrape it away, right? Well, that’s the thing, OnePlus is not exactly removing it, it’s… evolving it?
We’ll get to that in a second, but the timing is… suspicious. Back when it arrived to OnePlus devices, many people saw the alert slider as a copy of iPhone’s mute switch. Sure, it’s a bit different, and it slides in a different direction, but still, it’s easy to understand why people though that. Apple has used the mute switch on iPhones since the first one back in 2007 and kept it until 2023. Apple replaced it with the ‘Action Button’ in 2023, as the iPhone 15 Pro series debuted it. All four iPhone 16 models feature it, plus the iPhone 16e.
Apple completely ditched the mute switch last year
Now, half a year after the entire iPhone 16 series adopted the ‘Action Button’, it sure seems like OnePlus will do something similar. The timing is kind of suspicious, right? Is OnePlus following in Apple’s footsteps? Well, based on what Pete Lau said, not really. He claims that OnePlus has been debating how to take the Alert Slider “further’ for the past three years. He did say that making a decision to step away from the alert slider “wasn’t easy”.
Pete Lau said that the company wanted to “evolve” the alert slider “into something even more powerful”. It was also confirmed that this will be a “smarter, customizable button”. That change is made to give users more options and allow them to personalize their experience. Pete Lau even said that it will offer a “more personalized experience” and that this button will adapt to each user’s preferences.
The alert slider will “evolve” into a customizable button
So, even though OnePlus did not reveal all the details just yet, based on what was said, it’s easy to figure out what we’re getting. We’ll get a customizable button, though we don’t know its name yet. Chances are it will be something similar to Apple’s ‘Action Button’, though. If I had to guess, I’d say that OnePlus will, at the very least, offer three different actions for this button, but chances are we’ll get more. Single tap, double tap, and touch-and-hold options seem like a given. We are expecting more, however, as the alert slider already has three steps.
OnePlus did confirm that you’ll still be able to switch sound profiles with this button, of course. Chances are you’ll have many options to choose from, and that will be a considerable advantage for some. However, you will lose that sliding tactility that you can utilize even when your phone is in a pocket. Sure, you can do the same with a button, but many would say that’s not the same. Using the alert slider felt just right, and I personally know plenty of people who used it religiously, and were bummed when they moved away from their OnePlus or OPPO devices. Many people were really disappointed when the alert slider didn’t make the cut on the OnePlus 10T, after which OnePlus decided to bring it back.
There’s no denying this will be a more customizable & productive solution
There is no doubt that the new button will be more customizable and generally more functional, sure. I am kind of looking forward to it, personally, but at the same time I’m kind of disappointed the alert slier is going away. I kind of wish that OnePlus opted to keep both, one on each side perhaps. There’s a reason why I’m saying this, actually, because of the OPPO Find X8 series. OnePlus and OPPO are sister companies, and they usually take cues one from the other. Well, the OPPO Find X8 phones already have a new button, and yet they kept the alert slider too. That’s the route I’d like to see OnePlus take, actually, even though it won’t happen. It’s also a question if the OPPO Find X8 Ultra will stick to it or will it ditch the alert slider too.
The OPPO Find X8 and Find X8 Pro both include an alert slider on the left side and a ‘Quick Capture’ button on the right side. The Quick Capture button allows you to quickly launch the camera, take pictures by pressing it, and even zoom in and out when you swipe across it. That is the button that should function as both a camera key and an action key, actually, in my humble opinion. That’s the route that both OPPO and OnePlus could take. When it’s in the camera app, let it function as the camera key, when not, let users decide what exactly they want to do with it. That would allow both companies to keep the alert slider and add another button which would be highly customizable.
OnePlus had other options, but this is the company’s solution
Folks over at OnePlus and OPPO obviously don’t share that sentiment. A new button is coming to replace the alert slider, but we’re still not sure if OnePlus will follow in OPPO’s footsteps and include a camera key too. Pete Lau did not mention anything about that, so… we can only guess at this point in time. We are also not sure what phone will be the first to ditch the alert slider, as the OnePlus 13 and 13R launched earlier this year, while the OnePlus Open 2 is not coming this year at all. It could be one of the company’s ‘Nord’ phones, or perhaps the rumored high-end ‘mini’ phone. Only time will tell.
