Android 9 Pie Now Unofficially Available On OnePlus One

A number of hard-working members of the Android modding scene already managed to port Android 9 Pie to a number of OnePlus devices, including the original OnePlus One that’s pushing four now. As of this week, all handsets from the Chinese electronics maker have access to relatively stable ports of Android 9 Pie, with the final additions to the unofficial support list being the OnePlus One, OnePlus 5, and the OnePlus 5T. The latter two models should be updated to an official version of Google’s new operating system by the end of the year, as already confirmed by the Shenzhen, Guangdong-based manufacturer. Google itself only launched the stable build of Android 9 Pie earlier this month.

As all unofficial OS versions are still marked as beta builds and remain a third-party software solution, users who aren’t absolutely certain they know what they’re getting into are advised against flashing such firmware onto their devices. The majority of these early firmware versions are essentially stock Android experiences optimized to work with OnePlus-made hardware instead of attempts at creating custom versions of OxygenOS based on the latest major iteration of the world’s most popular OS. As such, their functionality is limited and some bugs are still to be expected, with long-term software support also being anything but guaranteed.

While OnePlus is already understood to be preparing for the announcement of the OnePlus 6T in October, that device isn’t expected to run Android 9 Pie out of the box and will instead likely be updated to the newer OS several weeks following its release, as was the case with last year’s OnePlus 5T which debuted with Android 7.1.1 Nougat despite hitting the market months after Android 8.0 Oreo was already available on the stable channel. The OnePlus 6T is also said to be launching on an American carrier for the first time ever, with one recent report indicating T-Mobile will be retailing the Android-powered device this fall.