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OnePlus Nord 3 finally receives the long-awaited Android 16-based stable OxygenOS 16 update. The device is currently receiving this major update in India and may soon be rolled out to other regions. Today, OnePlus has also released the OxygenOS 16 for the OnePlus 11R, which you can check out here.
The Nord series is quite popular in the budget segment, with Nord 5 being the latest addition. OnePlus Nord 3 was launched in mid-2023 with Android 13-based OxygenOS 13 OS. Unfortunately, the Android 16-based OxygenOS 16 is the last major update for the device, as it’s only eligible for three upgrades.
The OxygenOS 16 update for the Nord 3 is rolling out with build number CPH2491_16.0.2.400(EX01). Since this is a major update, it’s quite large in size, so make sure to download it over WiFi.
OxygenOS 16 for OnePlus Nord 3 – What’s New
Talking about new features and changes, fortunately, the device is getting most of the OxygenOS 16 features, including improved animations, faster response, optimized performance, several new AI features, creative playground, new customization options, new themes, and much more. You can find the full official changelog below.
Fast & Smooth
Parallel Processing
- System apps now display animations that begin and end at intuitive places, making interactions feel smoother.
- Introduces fluid drag-and-drop animations for Home screen icons, widgets, folders, and Smart Sidebar—delivering a natural, uninterrupted interaction experience.
- The text selection magnifier now fades in and out with fluid animations for a more natural experience.
- Adds seamless status bar transitions as you open the notification drawer or Quick Settings, with support for interrupting the gesture at any point.
- Enjoy a slicker visual experience with new, smooth animations for the audio playback controls in Quick Settings.
- Adds concurrent animation support for app starts and exits from the Home screen in button navigation mode, ensuring a more polished and uninterrupted flow.
- Light field motion effects provide lively, multi-sensory experiences with Luminous Rendering Engine.
- The updated scrolling mechanics deliver a more connected feeling between your touch and the on-screen movement.
Trinity Engine
- Trinity Engine optimizes workload and resources on the fly, maintaining smooth performance across videos, gaming, and extended camera use.
- Enhances steady gaming performance through intelligent analysis and prioritization of key computational tasks. Concurrent operations like pop-up windows and video calls are managed via smart scheduling, reducing power drain while ensuring stability and smoothness.
- Apps now launch faster directly from your Home screen.
- Photo albums now load faster and use less power when displaying thumbnails, improving overall battery life.
- Faster previews for cached videos and thumbnails in supported third-party apps
- Power saving mode now features tiered performance management that adapts to battery level, ensuring longer endurance with smoother performance.
OnePlus AI, Intelligently Yours
Mind Space
- Adds Mind Assistant on the Mind Space home page—ask it to search your saved content, with options to favorite, copy, and more.
- Mind Space now suggests collections-tap to create them instantly for quicker content browsing.
AI-powered Photos
- New visual update for Photos brings an immersive, seamless browsing experience.
- Photo albums are now easier to navigate with clearer categories and personalized sorting for frequently used ones.
- Checking photo info is easier—just swipe up for details and where it’s stored.
- Discover a suite of new video editing features like splitting, merging, adjusting playback speed, transitions, and adding background music. Produce high-quality videos directly from your edits with ease.
- You can now use automatic straightening when cropping and rotating portrait and architectural images in Photos.
- Create motion photo collages without losing quality and HDR effects of the photos, along with a selection of new templates for more personalized creations.
- Key video editing features—such as crop, rotation, parameter adjustment, and filters—have been refined to deliver a more polished video editing experience.
AI-powered Notes
- A new block editing mode lets you swipe left or right to select text, images, tables, or documents, enabling batch formatting and rapid repositioning more efficiently than ever.
- Touch and hold on images to switch between views, now with a side-by-side display for a smoother viewing experience.
- Share complete notes in one link, including text, images, audio, and videos.
- Introduces text highlighting: touch and hold to bold or change color, making it faster to emphasize key notes.
- New text formatting tools—switch fonts, apply wavy underlines, insert dividers, or highlight text—for more stylish and personalized notes.
AI Recorder
- Redesigns the Recorder app with a refreshed interface and more intuitive interactions.
- Adds the smart naming feature, which automatically generates titles for recordings based on their content, making them easier to find and identify.
- AI-driven noise cancellation enhances recordings by reducing background noise and highlighting human voices.
- Recording is smarter—contexts such as meetings, lectures, or interviews are auto-detected, with matching templates applied for better usability.
- Adds link sharing for recordings—send audio, transcript, and summaries all at once with one tap.
AI VoiceScribe
- AI VoiceScribe and Call Summary are now smarter with automatic context detection for deeper insights. Alternative summary templates are available for you to choose from to get the most practical information.
Uniquely Yours
Your Phone, Your Creative Playground
- The dynamic interplay between light and surroundings can now be captured by the innovative light field technology to deliver an authentic, immersive, and naturally beautiful visual experience.
- Subtle play of light and shadow enriches the overall look and tactile feel of the system.
- Luminous Rendering Engine brings light field animations that create more vivid, immersive multi-sensory experiences.
- The Aurora visual effects bring a premium and refined look with upgraded particle effects, glow effects, ripple effects, and chromatic aberration.
- Enhances design elements like diagrams and illustrations for improved readability and style.
- Introduces the new system-wide serif font “One Serif”, optimized for immersive reading with a classic, elegant aesthetic.
- Adds immersive weather visuals rendered in real time using Luminous Rendering Engine and live weather data for lifelike atmospheric effects.
- Optimizes the design and feel of core system interfaces like the notification drawer, Quick Settings, Setup Wizard, and system upgrades for clearer information and a more refined look.
- Apps like Clock, Calculator, and Compass are redesigned with lifelike textures and lighting for a more engaging experience.
- Improves the “Ring” fingerprint animation on the Lock screen by incorporating a glowing effect for a more aesthetically pleasing appearance.
Flux Home screen
- New Home screen icons showcase lifelike visuals and intricate detail through light field styling.
- Drag to resize icons and add app shortcuts for a more tailored Home screen.
- Large folder layouts get more variety. Hold to select 9-grid, 4-grid, or feature a bigger icon for the first app.
- Introduces an uncluttered Home screen design by removing text beneath icons.
- The Home screen edit mode interface has been refined, and you can rearrange the page order.
- Enjoy a cleaner, more organized Home screen with optimized grid and layout-making icons, folders, and widgets look tidier than ever.
- Quickly find apps in Drawer mode by swiping the index bar.
- Drawer mode now organizes your apps into categories, making them easier to find.
- The search bar in Drawer mode has been relocated to the Home screen bottom for improved accessibility.
- App suggestions in the Drawer are now more helpful, prioritizing the apps you use most often and those you’ve used recently.
- The Home screen, Lock screen & style page is now more structured and easier to navigate.
AI-powered Flux themes
- AI-enhanced flux themes highlight epic stills and vibrant moments.
- Experience the Sublime Grandeur motion wallpapers: as clouds part, sunlight floods your Lock screen in dazzling hues.
- Introduces multiple sets of motion wallpapers, bringing your screen to life with dynamic, vivid scenes that unleash unconfined vitality.
- Now you can set motion photos and videos as your wallpaper with AI-powered depth effects, creating a vibrant look each time your screen lights up.
- Adds a modular, real-time editing framework where changes appear instantly for greater freedom.
- When editing certain Flux themes, you can now resize the clock.
- You can now customize widget names, making the Home screen more personalized and unique.
- The Lock screen now allows configuring lower-left and lower-right shortcuts for instant access.
- Full-screen Always-On Display shows your Lock screen wallpaper, widgets, notifications, time, and more -even when the screen is off.
- Adds support for flux theme icon styles that automatically adapt to your wallpaper colors for a cohesive look.
- Specially crafted Dark mode icon styles offer a more comfortable viewing experience and help protect your eyes.
Communication and interconnection
Touch to share
- Touch to share allows you to quickly share content and files while viewing in Photos, Notes, and My Files.
OnePlus Connect
- Mirror your phone to your PC—unlock it across devices, share files between systems, and even open multiple phone windows for multitasking. Handy shortcuts let you hide, show, and resize windows in a snap.
- Copy text on one device and paste it on another with new cross-device clipboard sharing.
- Device Connect settings are now grouped by device type and use case, simplifying navigation.
Smart Cars
- Enhances in-car Bluetooth pairing to provide a more seamless experience.
My Devices
- Adds My Devices in Quick Settings, letting you check and control all your linked devices in one place.
- Introduces My Devices widgets on the Home screen, allowing you to add widgets for individual devices or a comprehensive device overview for simpler management.
Network optimization
- Adds a new interface for Al LinkBoost Network Engine, where you can view the number of network optimizations, reduction in lag time, and more.
- You can now receive real-time notifications for network acceleration in scenarios with poor network conditions.
- You can now test your network speed and check network status details, such as latency and upload/download speeds.
- Share your phone’s Wi-Fi connection with your tablet for seamless browsing.
- Enhanced Wi-Fi algorithms boost network performance in weak-signal areas like elevators, bathrooms, and office corners.
- AI LinkBoost enhancements improve kernel scheduling, ensuring more reliable connectivity for widely used apps.
Attention to detail, everywhere
Camera
- AI-enhanced Doc Scanner instantly transforms physical documents into digital files for storage and printing.
Notifications & Quick Settings
- Quick Settings now offers expanded customization: 2×1 tiles, plus removal, addition, and rearrangement of audio, brightness, volume, and My Devices modules.
- Streamlined notification design maximizes space usage and delivers a quicker browsing experience.
More details
- Play ringtones only in your earbuds when they’re connected, preventing sound from disturbing others in public.
- Adds Bosnian to the list of available system languages.
- Redesigns Smart Sidebar with refreshed visual styling, now supporting single/dual-column display.
- Faster, more flexible sharing with a redesigned panel, showing contacts and customizable app links.
- Notifications and Live Alerts are now optimized in landscape mode, reducing screen blockage for a more immersive view.
- Banner notification interactions are now more streamlined, with apps opening in small windows instead of full view.
- Foreground and background activity times are now displayed on a redesigned battery page for accurate tracking.
Security & privacy
Others
- Improves the virus scanning speed in Phone Manager.
- Touch and hold any app icon on the Home screen to access options for locking or hiding it.
The Android 16 update for the OnePlus Nord 3 is rolling out in batches in India, and it may take a few days or weeks to reach all users. Unfortunately, if your device is based on other regions, you may have to wait a bit longer for the update.
You can check for the update in Settings. Once the update is available, you can download and install it, but don’t forget to take a backup first.
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