OnePlus Clarifies Update Policy: Only Provides 3 Android OS Updates, Counts the Out-of-Box Build

Over the past couple of days, confusion arrived around the topic of software updates and the number of years of support OnePlus was providing to their smartwatches. Because that confusion caused more questions than anyone had answers for, OnePlus reached out to press today to clarify the situation surrounding the OnePlus Watch 2 and OnePlus Watch 3. However, in doing so, their wording on the timing of updates brought us to a bit of a surprise twist that now involves their smartphones and the number of years of updates provided, which I’m not sure many in the industry understood.

Here’s what we now understand about OnePlus updates for both smartphones and smartwatches.

When OnePlus launched the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R earlier this year, they said in an official statement that both “will have 4 years of Android OS updates and 6 years of security updates.” We assumed (our bad!) that meant 4 Android OS updates in the future. Since the OnePlus 13 launched with Android 15 out-of-the-box, that would put the 4 updates at Android 16, 17, 18, and then Android 19 to wrap things up. The rest of the industry believed the same.

That’s not how OnePlus counts years of updates.

We’ve now triple clarified here, but OnePlus tells us that depending on when a phone launches, they can include the out of box software as one of the updates. For the OnePlus 13, as an example, they included Android 15 as the first Android OS update and only plan to provide Android 16, 17, and 18 following that.

For their watches, like the OnePlus Watch 2 and OnePlus Watch 3, they are also including the out-of-box software as an update. OnePlus’ official support statement says they provide 3 years of software updates for their watches. They have confirmed to us that the OnePlus Watch 2 will only see updates to WearOS 5 and WearOS 6, as they count WearOS 4 (which it launched with) as an update. For the OnePlus Watch 3, the same goes – WearOS 5 out-of-the-box counts, followed by WearOS 6 and WearOS 7 updates.

OnePlus tells me this has always been their update policy, which apparently not many of us understood. They believe that releasing new software and placing it on a phone at launch, followed by a year of support on that OS version, counts as an update.

Of course, I feel for their position some, as a phone like the OnePlus 13 launched with a version of Android (15) that was only months old. To get to the full 4th OS version update would require yet another year of support. Their version of OxygenOS 15 on it is also a major refresh of their skin. It is a big software release, it’s just hard to call it an update when the phone is running it out of the box.

All that said, Google does not count its software updates this way. For example, the Pixel 5a launched with Android 11 and was promised 3 years of updates. It then received Android 12, 13, and 14 before being cut off. The Pixel 6 series launched with Android 12 and was initially only promised 3 years of OS updates. It received Android 13, 14, and 15, which was supposed to be the end, but Google has since expanded it for 2 more years to a full 5 years of OS updates.

So now you know how to count OnePlus updates.

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