OnePlus is making a significant design change to its smartphones by replacing the decade-old Alert Slider with a new customizable button called the Plus Key, marking a strategic shift toward AI integration in its hardware.
The Plus Key will make its first appearance on the OnePlus 13s, launching in India on June 5, 2025, and will be included on all OnePlus smartphones released throughout the year. Unlike its predecessor, which was limited to toggling sound profiles, the Plus Key offers extensive customization options, including launching the camera, activating translations, or triggering various AI features.
At the heart of this change is OnePlus AI, the company's new suite of artificial intelligence tools. The flagship feature, AI Plus Mind, allows users to capture relevant on-screen content by pressing the Plus Key or swiping up with three fingers. The system intelligently saves this information to a dedicated Mind Space, where it automatically categorizes details like event schedules, reservations, and locations. Users can later retrieve this information using natural language searches.
"Users told us they want AI that helps them work smart, play hard, and stay authentic. The Plus Key and AI Plus Mind are designed to do exactly that," said Arthur Lam, Director of OxygenOS and AI Strategy at OnePlus.
Beyond Plus Mind, OnePlus is introducing several other AI features. These include AI VoiceScribe for recording and summarizing calls, AI Translation for consolidating all translation capabilities into one app, AI Search for natural language queries across device content, and AI Reframe for intelligent photo composition. The company will also release AI Best Face 2.0 this summer, which can fix expressions in group photos with up to 20 people.
OnePlus has also confirmed a deeper partnership with Google, bringing Gemini AI integration to native OxygenOS apps including Notes and Clock. This integration will enable Gemini to recognize commands and perform actions across the system, such as creating notes based on online videos.
To address privacy concerns, OnePlus has implemented a Private Computing Cloud that processes sensitive data on-device and uses encrypted cloud computing only when necessary, all protected by a Trusted Execution Environment.