OxygenOS 16 Revamps OnePlus Earbud Controls

OxygenOS 16 finally addresses one of OnePlus' long-time shortcomings: the audio control settings are now directly accessible from the earbuds. Rather than rooting through Bluetooth settings just to turn ANC on or get your battery levels, you can now control and manage your OnePlus Buds straight from Quick Settings (and a widget here or there). It’s a small change with oversized impact, making OnePlus phones feel a little more cohesive — perhaps, dare we say, even a little more competitive against the best ecosystem playbooks.

Quick Settings Make ANC a Breeze on OxygenOS 16

The biggest addition is a new Quick Settings interface, which now includes a “My Devices” control. With smaller or larger designs to choose from, it floats a neat earbud shortcut that pulls up an ANC menu that switches between ANC, transparency, and off modes, as well as per-earbud battery readouts. If you want to make gestures more or less sensitive, or mess around with audio effects, a deeper “Earbud Settings” link is there without spelunking through Settings > Bluetooth first.

In the end, the tap count decreases significantly. On previous builds, toggling the ANC modes on Buds Pro 3 or Nord Buds requires four or five steps. It’s a single swipe and a single tap in OxygenOS 16. In my testing, it transitioned from transparency to full noise canceling in consistently less than two seconds — sometimes as little as a second or so versus around eight to 10 seconds when routed through the old Bluetooth path.

Home Screen Widgets for Power Users on OxygenOS 16

OxygenOS 16 is also bringing home screen device widgets. You can pin each earbud separately as an individual tile, or you can group several accessories into a single control hub. It’s a nice individual approach; if you’re toting around more than one pair — your Buds Pro 3 for commuting and, say, Nord Buds when working out — you can dive into ANC and battery straight off the bat for each, whether it’s the connected one or not.

The visual design helps, too. Clear device imagery and labels mean fewer mistaps, and when you’re dashing out the door that’s key. One downside: the widgets don’t resize, but they do stack — a good way to keep your home screen uncluttered without sacrificing easy access.

My Devices Nudges OnePlus To A Unified Ecosystem Path

Outside of earbuds, the new “My Devices” layer plugs into Device Connect and O+ Connect so you can control your tablets, PCs, and accessories from a single spot. It’s not a carbon copy of Apple’s Control Center, but the goal is clear: reduce the friction between your phone and the gear you really use. You can dive into a OnePlus Pad to find or manage files or keep up with a stylus, and also manage the third-party endpoints you’ve connected through O+ Connect.

There’s still work to do. There’s no OnePlus Watch integration, surprisingly, which would be a neat place to do some glanceable battery and mode control. If you’re invested in wearables (in this case smart speakers, too), a universal device presence would be icing on that cake.

Why This Fix Matters for Everyday OnePlus Earbud Use

Earbuds are the accessory most often paired with our smartphones, and that frequent use makes convenience key. Counterpoint Research has noted that true wireless earbuds make up more than half of all smart personal audio (Termic says that it’s about “70-ish”) shipments worldwide, while IDC has reported consistent growth in multi-device audio use as people bounce around between phones, tablets, and PCs. Reducing friction in small ways — shaving off three taps when you toggle ANC, say — can add up over a day of calls, commutes, and workouts.

OnePlus had already nailed the audio basics on hardware: Buds Pro 3 offer excellent codec support, minimal latency, and compelling spatial audio. The software of OxygenOS 16 is finally in sync with the hardware, where it makes all the common tasks obvious and quick. It also closes the convenience gap with competitors, like Samsung’s quick panel controls and Apple’s AirPods tiles in Control Center, while maintaining OnePlus’s clean visual language.

The Trade-offs and What’s Next for OxygenOS 16 Users

There are caveats. The most customizable Quick Settings layout comes when you opt to split notifications and toggles. If you fall back to the old one-shade-fits-all style, some things get in your way. Making favorite accessories pinnable would be nice, since the compact tile names the most recently used device instead of the one you actually use the most. And on that last point, native watch controls would complete the suite.

But the direction is certainly up. It’s being released to the last couple of years’ worth of OnePlus flagships, as well as some older models; the features are consistent across OnePlus’s current earbud lineup. This is the quality-of-life upgrade we’ve all been crying out for if you’ve ever swapped between ANC settings during a day.

Bottom Line: OxygenOS 16 Makes Earbud Controls Easy

OxygenOS 16 takes the most annoying OnePlus phone day-to-day quirk and puts earbud controls where they belong: one tap away. It’s not showy, but it’s the sort of thoughtful polish that makes a device feel more intelligent, speedier, and more personal from the moment you pick it up.