T-Mobile OnePlus 8 5G Android 11 (OxygenOS 11) update did not add Always-on-Display (AOD) feature, as per user reports

Carrier versions of devices have, oftentimes, been the laughing stock of the Android update mess. These devices regularly lag behind their unlocked or international counterparts in terms of updates by months.

Case in point, the OnePlus 8. OnePlus really brought its A-game by rolling out the stable build of Android 11-based OxygenOS 11 to the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro a month after Google unveiled the new version of Android, Android 11.

With such an impressive precedence set, carriers would be incentivized to roll out the same update to their OnePlus 8 devices at the same pace, right?

Wrong! T-Mobile proceeded to sit on this OxygenOS 11 update to its OnePlus 8 5G update for months, only releasing the testing builds sometime in late January.

At the time of writing, T-Mobile’s official tracker page for the OnePlus 8 5G still indicates that the update is undergoing development.

Well, if they’ve taken this much time to cook up this update to their liking and satisfaction, then its gotta be well-baked and devoid of all the issues we saw with the early stable builds of OxygenOS 11, right?

Well, nope! Users who have updated their devices to this build note that the update is missing one of the most requested features of OxygenOS 11, the Always-on-Display (AOD).

I just upgraded to Oxygen 11 and I don’t see the option for always on display. I went under the Ambient light section and it doesn’t give me the option. I can only tap the screen or raise the phone to see it and it goes away after 5 seconds.
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It’s missing the AOD feature, similar to the T-Mobile 8T before it was finally updated to include it. WTF T-Mobile.

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There are numerous complaints (1,2,3,4,5,6) spewed across the community and social forums from T-Mobile OnePlus 8 5G users noting the missing AOD feature on their device.

At the time of writing, it remains unclear for how much longer T-Mobile will be working on this build or whether this AOD feature will be re-added to the T-Mobile OnePlus 8 5G in subsequent builds.

We have recently looked at a way to convert the T-Mobile OnePlus 8T to an international variant, effectively cutting ties with T-Mobile and all the associated drawbacks.

Should T-Mobile continue to drop the ball like this, it will be only a matter of time before the developer community comes up with a way for distraught users to break free from T-Mobile.

We shall continue to keep an eye on this and update as and when we get more info so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb. Also, we have these and many more T-Mobile and OnePlus stories in our dedicated sections.

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