OxygenOS and Realme UI Are Being Killed by BBK’s ColorOS Push

Smartprix, citing what it calls “a highly reliable and seasoned industry insider”, reports that OxygenOS and Realme UI are being permanently discontinued, with all future OnePlus and Realme smartphones running OPPO’s ColorOS globally. The decision is the endpoint of a software unification OPPO began laying the groundwork for in 2021, and it lands as OnePlus storefronts in Germany, France and Spain already route visitors toward OPPO hardware.

Per Smartprix, OPPO “has made the decision to axe both OxygenOS and Realme UI entirely”, with both OnePlus and Realme now being “fully consolidated into the core OPPO brand”. The exclusive reporting OxygenOS and Realme UI are being axed cites a single industry insider at OPPO.

The Operational Case for One Skin

Smartprix’s exclusive lays the operational case out plainly. “Maintaining three distinct Android skins (ColorOS, OxygenOS, and Realme UI) requires an immense amount of capital, time, and software engineering”, the outlet reports the insider as saying. “To aggressively cut down on R&D costs, OPPO has made the decision to axe both OxygenOS and Realme UI entirely.”

The same insider says both OnePlus and Realme are being absorbed into OPPO at the brand level as well as the software level. Future devices from all three labels will run ColorOS, “no exceptions”, per Smartprix. Realme’s China business is being wound down to “concentrate fully on markets outside it”, while OnePlus is “narrowing its focus to its two biggest markets, India and China”, the same report says.

The practical result over the past five years, per Smartprix, has been ColorOS absorbing most of the engineering investment, with OxygenOS and Realme UI running on shared code even as they carried distinct names. In India, “OnePlus’s after-sales support has already been folded into OPPO’s service network”, the outlet adds, with the standalone OnePlus repair shop “quietly becoming a thing of the past.”

How the 2021 Codebase Announcement Became the 2026 Discontinuation

The decision was not sudden. Smartprix traces it to a 2021 announcement by Pete Lau, “OnePlus founder and OPPO chief product officer” per the outlet, that OnePlus and OPPO would merge their software codebases. The stated aim at the time was to “combine OxygenOS’s speed with ColorOS’s depth.”

A year later, Android Headlines reports, “Oppo and OnePlus unified the code of their custom skins (OxygenOS and ColorOS) in 2022.” OnePlus had already made an almost identical move domestically years earlier, retiring HydrogenOS, its Chinese counterpart to OxygenOS, in favor of ColorOS for mainland China consumers, the same outlet says. What started as a regional experiment in China is becoming the global default.

A short sequence of the moves that brought the three brands to this point:

1. Launch era: OnePlus positions OxygenOS as a fast, bloat-free Android skin on the original OnePlus One, per Smartprix.
2. 2021: Pete Lau announces OnePlus and OPPO will merge software codebases, per Smartprix.
3. 2022: OnePlus and OPPO unify the underlying code of OxygenOS and ColorOS, per Android Headlines.
4. April 2026: Realme and OnePlus merge at the corporate level, per 9to5Google.
5. June 2026: OnePlus storefronts in Germany, France and Spain begin routing visitors to OPPO hardware, per Android Headlines.
6. July 2026: Smartprix reports OxygenOS and Realme UI being “axed entirely”.

European Storefronts Already Point to OPPO

The software retirement lands alongside an operational retreat in Europe that Android Headlines first reported in June 2026. Per that report, the official OnePlus web stores in Germany, France and Spain have “integrated promotional banners directing visitors to buy alternative hardware from parent corporation Oppo.” The German storefront added “a €10 discount voucher on Oppo purchases exceeding €30”, spotted by Caschy Blog and corroborated by WinFuture.

Clicking through lands shoppers on a curated OPPO page carrying wireless earbuds, tablets and flagship smartphones. Purchases finalize on OPPO’s primary webshop, outside the OnePlus network. “Existing OnePlus smartphones and accessories remain legally available for purchase in these territories”, Android Headlines notes, though “the brand’s long-term independence is effectively fading.”

9to5Google adds that Realme “had already merged with OnePlus as recently as April”, which the outlet describes as “a further nail in the coffin for the one-time ‘Flagship Killer’ brand.” That April move has already happened; the Smartprix report is the first to attach a software timeline to the same restructuring.

In the United Kingdom, the coverage of the OnePlus UK storefront shows OnePlus products “currently listed as ‘Out of stock'”, with no product refreshes in sight. The European discount banners do not surface for North American shoppers because OPPO does not maintain a US smartphone footprint, per Android Headlines.

Why Three Skins Were Always Going to Lose to One

Smartprix’s insider lays the financial logic out plainly. Three parallel Android teams, each maintaining its own visual identity, theming engine, settings app, and update pipeline, run inside one parent group. Cutting two of them down to one frees R&D budget, per the same report.

The cost lands on one community. From the launch of the original OnePlus One, Smartprix writes, OxygenOS “was widely considered the gold standard for Android software, a lightning-fast, bloat-free, and highly customizable skin that catered directly to tech enthusiasts.” Realme UI was already heavily based on ColorOS under the hood, the same outlet reports, so its users adapt with less friction. The OnePlus faithful, per Smartprix, will feel the renaming like a gut punch.

“Maintaining three distinct Android skins (ColorOS, OxygenOS, and Realme UI) requires an immense amount of capital, time, and software engineering. To aggressively cut down on R&D costs, OPPO has made the decision to axe both OxygenOS and Realme UI entirely.”

The line is from the Smartprix exclusive citing its unnamed industry insider.

Where OnePlus and Realme Survive Next

Smartprix says OnePlus is narrowing its focus to its two biggest markets, India and China, while Realme is “winding down its China business to concentrate fully on markets outside it.” OnePlus’s after-sales support in India has already been folded into OPPO’s service network, the same report says, with the standalone OnePlus repair shop “quietly becoming a thing of the past.” A few sourced figures frame the contraction:

• Three Android skins currently maintained across BBK’s phone brands (ColorOS, OxygenOS, Realme UI), per Smartprix
• 2021: year Pete Lau announced the OnePlus and OPPO codebase merger, per Smartprix
• 2022: year the OxygenOS and ColorOS codebases were unified, per Android Headlines
• 3: European markets where OnePlus storefronts route visitors to OPPO hardware (Germany, France, Spain), per Android Headlines
• 2: markets where OnePlus will continue to operate as a brand (India and China), per Smartprix

Smartprix frames the discontinuation as “The software that powered the ‘Flagship Killer’ has run its course!” Android Headlines, reporting the European storefront shift in June, took a softer line: OnePlus scaling down “in favor of Oppo is a move to finalize something that began much earlier than many would like to admit.” For readers with the phones already in hand, the OxygenOS 16 update on the OnePlus 15 is one of the final builds to carry the name, and the OnePlus N6’s launch on June 30 in India sits inside the same India focus Smartprix’s report describes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OxygenOS being discontinued?

Yes, per a Smartprix exclusive citing “a highly reliable and seasoned industry insider.” OxygenOS is being “axed entirely” in favor of ColorOS across all future OnePlus devices, per the same report.

Is Realme UI being killed too?

Yes. Per Smartprix, Realme UI is being discontinued alongside OxygenOS, with all future Realme devices also running ColorOS.

When did the OxygenOS and ColorOS codebase merge happen?

Smartprix dates the announcement to 2021, when Pete Lau confirmed OnePlus and OPPO would merge their software codebases. Android Headlines reports the unified code went live in 2022.

Where will OnePlus still operate?

Per Smartprix, OnePlus is narrowing its focus to India and China. Its India after-sales support is already folded into OPPO’s service network.