OnePlus is moving its community members to a new platform called Orbit

After the OnePlus 1 made its debut back in 2014, the former underdog company established itself as one driven by enthusiasts and therefore quickly gained a dedicated community of followers.

It’s 2022 now, and the company from back then has evolved into a different kind, with different goals and meaning behind its brand. Despite changing its ways, though, OnePlus claims that it currently has more than 6.1 million members in its community forums, many of which are active and participate regularly.

If you are one of the OnePlus community members, then there is some big news for you. The company just announced it will be migrating all members to a brand new platform called Orbit, which will fully replace and bring under one roof everyone and everything that’s currently in OnePlus’ forums and apps. This transition will begin on June 28 and continue until June 30.

Migrating from OnePlus Community to Orbit

Moving a community from one platform to another is always a difficult task, and it is bound to raise a lot of questions for the process, especially when the community is as well-established as that of OnePlus. So, OnePlus came out with a post sharing some of the details.

First of all, information like comments, posts, and direct messages will all be transferred to the new platform. However, during the migration period (28.06 - 30.06), members won’t be able to make new comments, create posts, edit their profiles, or send DMs. Visiting the forums will still be possible, though.

As far as the new platform Orbit is concerned, some features won’t be available right away. That includes earned medals, badges, and login streak. The good news is that OnePlus will implement them eventually and you will have all your old achievements back on the new Community Medal system. There will also be new achievements for you to earn.

For those that want to get into the nitty-gritty of all that is new with Orbit, the OnePlus community post has a detailed timeline of all the new features and bug fixes laid out clearly.

What will happen to Raffle Points?

Raffle Points, or Raffles, are points that OnePlus community members earn by being active in the forums, which can then be used to enter, well, raffles for the chance to win a prize. These points are being replaced by an evolved alternative in Orbit and will be dubbed RedCoins.

While Raffle Points were exclusive to the OnePlus Community, RedCoins can be spent in Community, as well as the Red Cable Club and e-commerce platforms. Members will be able to earn them not only through contests and daily activities but also through campaigns like Shot on OnePlus.

What’s more, whereas Raffles were used to win contest prizes, RedCoins will be the contest prize itself from now on. In other words, users will no longer have to rely on what OnePlus chooses to offer as a reward and will have the freedom to spend their earned RedCoins on whatever they wish.

Once the whole migration process is completed on June 30, users with the old Community application already installed on their phones will receive an update. The current home for OnePlus forums will also lead to a brand new platform.

For anyone that does decide not to update and stick with the old version of the app, though, that will only be possible for a short period. OnePlus says it will eventually shut down the outdated version, and it will no longer be usable. So keep that in mind if you want to hang on. That being said, Orbit sounds like a better version in more than one way, so there is no obvious reason not to update.