New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Providing 3 major updates to a phone running Android is a critical task. OnePlus chose to bite the bullet, as they decided to provide Android 9 Pie update for OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T.
https://twitter.com/getpeid/status/1023964369552592901
Both of the phones were released in 2016 with OxygenOS 3. That particular version of the in-house skin of OnePlus was based on Android 6 Marshmallow.
Over years, the phones got multiple updates. The users are currently stuck with OxygenOS 5.0.8, which was released 3 months ago. According to OnePlus officials, the engineering team devoted their full strength to bring Pie.
OnePlus Community Manager David Y. took the responsibility to communicate with the forum member. He shared a series of posts in recent past, which cleared the level of confusion to some extent.
As a matter of fact, he also posted a screenshot of a work-in-progress build of OxygenOS 9.0 running on his OnePlus 3.
David also mentioned that the development team applied for the process of CTS, which might need ‘at least 4 days’.
Good news: Our software team solved the OTA issue. Currently, we are in the CTS process, which has at least 4 days to go. (We are talking about the beta build)
Stay patient and hope for the best.
Cheers!
The CTS aka Compatibility Test Suite is a set of tests designed by Google to ensure the compatibility of the device firmware with certain standards. If a device fails to pass CTS, then the OEM can’t ship it with the Google Play Store and/or other Google services pre-installed.
In the March 18 edition of OnePlus daily dose, we talked about some unexpected glitches in the CTS evaluation. David posted that the team would apply for another round of CTS after fixing the buggy portions.
However, they dropped a subtle hint about launching the Pie update in form of Hydrogen OS.
As HydrogenOS / H2OS is intended for China, this variant does not ship with Google apps. It gives an unexpected advantage: publishing a build of it to the masses doesn’t require to pass Google’s CTS process.
Well, that hint was not a deception. OnePlus has announced the Hydrogen OS 9.0 beta tester recruitment in China for OnePlus 3 and 3T.
Eligibility criteria include the possession of OnePlus 3/3T, familiarity with HydrogenOS and flashing as well as greater than 30 hours per week average online presence. Interested users need to fill up the online questionnaire. Afterwards they will be added to a private QQ group to directly communicate with the OnePlus engineers.
The initiative is more of a closed beta for now, which is not intended for global users. It is still unclear that whether OnePlus may launch the same build for global users to satisfy the impatient users or they wait for the OOS build to pass CTS and release it afterwards.
FYI, the Pie update for OnePlus 5/5T also arrived earlier via HydrogenOS in China. The following comment made by David during that time is applicable now as well:
As always, PiunikaWeb is keeping a tab on the situation. OnePlus 3/3T users, expect more details on the Pie update from us soon!
Update (22 March, 2019)
Manu J., Global Product Operations Manager, has just announced about the closed beta testing initiative for global users.
Similar to the Chinese beta testing process, users are asked to fill up an online questionnaire first. The application window is available till March 23, so hurry up!
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