Oxygenos has quickly become my new favorite android interface

What makes a great Android interface? A few things come to mind immediately. It should be fast, reliable, functional and easy to use. In 2025, almost all the options check these boxes. Since Android has matured, it is practically impossible to find a direct bad Android Ui.

This means that it is more difficult to stand out from the crowd. Still, that’s exactly what OnePlus has managed to do with its latest building of Oxygenos. Since the end of December I have used a OnePlus 13 with Oxygenos 15 Like my daily Android phone. During that time, I have been thoroughly impressed with OnePlus software.

Oxygenos 15 is not drastically different from skins on Google, Samsung or other Android phones. However, a handful of small but meaningful decisions have catapulted it to the Android interface I prefer more than anything else. Here’s the reason.

OnePlus makes a big case about the smoothness and response of Oxygenos 15. A real, really big deal. A large part of the company’s Oxygenos 15 Landing Page Is dedicated to it and talks about how much less oxygenos 15 are compared to Oxygenos 14 (20%, to be accurate) and show several animations of apps that open and close to drive the point home.

It’s all stupid, but after using Oxygenos 15 in recent weeks, OnePlus has the right to be proud of it.

Just as there is no bad Android -interface in 2025, there is none Flagship Android phones that is slow or slow. Modern chipset have reached a point where all flagships and even most middle managers-are fast and responsive. Still, Oxygenos 15 on OnePlus 13 have been out as something special.

It is difficult to describe in writing, but there is a sense of fluid for Oxygenos 15 that I do not notice in a UI 7 or Google Pixel software. All of them are fast, but Oxygenos 15 feels faster and more responsive to my touch. I think this also helps from the excellent animations throughout the OS. Whether it is the way apps are expanded/shrink from a folder or how the quick settings gently bounce down from the top of the screen, it strikes a fantastic balance of good, fast visual images that do not seem slow or heavy.

If you have used Oxygenos 15, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, I would encourage you to do so. When you do it and get used to how the interface feels, it is difficult to go back to something else.

Multitasking has long been one of the clear differentiates between Android and iOS. Android phones have allowed you to run more apps side by side for years, while even The iPhone 16 series Missing this basic functionality.

But I have a confession: I hate multitasking on most Android phones. I appreciate the versatility, but using two tight versions of my apps on top of each other is not a good experience. That said, I love multitasking on Oxygenos 15, and it’s because of open canvas.

When you are in an app and want to start multitasking, launch Open Canvas by swiping up on the screen with three fingers. This pushes your app to the top of the screen and brings you back to the home screen so you can select the other app you want to open.

You can use each app in a split of 50/50 if you prefer, but the real magic of open canvas is the ability to shrink one of the apps so it is mostly out of sight. This shows one of your apps almost on full screen while the other floats above or below it. When you press the hidden app, it immediately pops in full view and shrinks the other.

This is how multitasking should be. I get the convenience of having two apps right by my fingertips, but I don’t have to use them in shrunken, narrow windows. It is especially useful when I do something like paying bills and will quickly jump back and forth between my bank app and my credit card app. Open canvas has completely destroyed all other forms of multitasking for me, and there is a great reason why Oxygenos is now my Android interface.

I am a sucker for good adaptation. That’s one of the reasons so many of us choose Android over iOS, and it’s been a bedrock of Android since its inception. However, many modern Android skins are missing in this department. Google’s pixel interface is a little too stiff for my taste, and although a user interface is much more flexible, not all fun to interact with (I look at you, galaxy themes).

Oxygenos, meanwhile, get everything right. Straight out of the box you can change appicons (system -wide or individually), accent colors, fingerprint animations, home screen transitions, quick settings tiles and more.

It is an incredible level of adjustment, and it is easy to use as well. It reminds me of how customized most Android interfaces were a few years ago in the best possible way. This is how customization should be on all Android phones, and there is another reason why Oxygenos has stood out for me.

Similarly, Oxygeno’s 15’s general style only works. It is more adapted than “stock” Android, but not nearly as over-the-top as a user interface. Between the quick settings, the app drawer, the setting setup and storage apps such as the calculator and watch, I think it all strikes a very nice balance. I think this is especially true to have started using Samsung Galaxy S25 recently. It’s a good phone! It’s fast, the screen looks good, and there are many settings to play with. But I don’t love what a user interface looks like, and it puts a damper on things for me.

Each smartphone has AI in 2025. Whether it’s a Samsung Galaxy, a Google Pixel or even an iPhone, there’s no one escapes the attack of Mobile AI features. It’s a shame too, because almost all of them are a little practical and simply bad at worst.

Oxygenos 15 has its own proportion of AI features as well, and they are pretty much what we expected. There are AI foot tools for deleting reflections and fixing blurry images, AI writing tone adjustment and formatting of tricks in the Notes app, real-time AI screen translation and AI-assisted answers to text messages.

The features are there if you want to use them, but unlike any Android interface, OnePlus has hidden them from sight if – like me – you don’t care about them. For example, the AI ​​answer and AI screen translator are only available from the smart sidebar, which can be completely disabled through the setting app.

There is a night-and-day approach from something like that A Ui 7Who seems too eager to throw ai in your face any chance it will be. Between the Ai Writing Tools icon on the Samsung keyboard, the dedicated Galaxy AI setting page and new features that are now briefly on the Galaxy S25 series, it often feels like it’s nothing to get away from Samsung’s AI future.

OnePlus seems to understand that not everyone is ready to jump aboard the AI ​​-band. Perhaps the company is also self-conscious that the AI ​​features are a bit niche for most users. Anyway, I prefer OnePlus lighter approach here. I’m not sure if it will continue with future Oxygenos -iterations, but at least in Oxygenos 15 it feels tame and in control.

Oxygenos was in a rough place a couple of years ago. Oxygenos 13 was one of the most significant updates to the interface this year, and not all it worked. It was messy, heavy and had lost a lot of what made previous iterations so good.

OnePlus came on the right path with Oxygenos 14, and Oxygenos 15 feels like what the company has been working on for the last couple of years. It checks every box I look for, and unless some drastic changes, it will be my Android -skin chosen in the future.