OxygenOS 16 plunged me and my OnePlus 13 into a love-hate relationship — you can learn from it

Taking navigation options from users was a mistake

After a certain point, however, Nova became my default home launcher for one core reason: Android ruined the app drawer. Now — I get it — a lot of you are creatures of chaos, and you don’t mind the mess in there. But I do, for one core, undeniably valid and objective reason: there was no need to remove the way it worked before.

In case you’re new to the world of Android, let me provide a quick history lesson. This operating system has pretty much always allowed users to structure their app drawer in numerous ways. For orderly individuals such as myself, pages was the go-to choice. Every page was like a category for different apps, which helped me navigate through the menus more quickly. Makes sense, right?

At a given point, however, Google decided that we don’t want that anymore. Now we have a mess of apps, which you can only sort by install date or alphabetical order. This, to me, is utter nonsense, and I’ve always disliked it. I’ve always been imploring the Big G to include multiple drawer navigation methods in base Android, simply because having more choices is always better than being stuck with just one option. After all, we had it in the past — why was there a need to take it away?

Thanks to the efforts of third party developers — like the folks who made Nova — I could get that ability back. For the record, some manufacturers, who make their own Android ROMs — such as Samsung’s OneUI — also include the navigation method (and from what I’ve seen in real life, most Galaxy S24 and S25 users utilize pages, for what that is worth).

OxygenOS' team needs to listen to user feedback

So, this brings me to my switch from the Pixel 6a to the OnePlus 13. And while I did like the general vibe of OxygenOS, I disliked that it did not offer me options to categorize my apps manually. With OxygenOS 16, this almost got fixed. We weren’t given the option to navigate through our apps with pages or categories, but we did get automatically generated folders. These effectively group your apps based on category.

The issue? Well, according to OnePlus and OxygenOS 16, my banking app and my Warhammer 40k data sheet app belong in the same folder, titled “Utility”. This is obvious nonsense, but alas — I can’t do anything about it. But if you can believe it — it gets worse.

It’s typical for software upgrades to reset users back to the default home launcher, after the system restarts. After I let my OnePlus 13 simmer a bit, I did a bit of software maintenance, after which I rebooted it again — just to be safe. Then, I switched back to Nova. I did a bit of wandering around, familiarizing myself with the new stuff, a wide grin on my face.

Then I press the home button, and it does this weird thing, where it compacts my launcher and tries to bring the system one back up. Odd. I verify settings — everything seems to be set up correctly, so I just reboot the phone. And imagine my surprise — the same thing happens again. I switch to gestures, and fair enough — those work alright, but I’ve never been a fan of this method of navigation. I still have both options available in Settings, so I believe that it is more of fair of me to expect that they work correctly in equal measure.

Long story short — I try everything that I could think of, but nothing worked. I start noticing that threads are popping-up about this online, but no one seems to have found a solution. Until someone did. And you won’t believe this.

This is why I love Android, but regular users shouldn’t be expected to do this

I stumble upon this brilliant Reddit thread, which gives steps on how to temporarily fix the issue.

If your third party launcher is not working on OxygenOS 16, this is what you need to do:

1. Go into Settings and search for “Default Apps”
2. Select “Home app” and pick the launcher you’d like to use
3. Restart your phone right away. When it boots back up — don’t do anything until you’ve wrapped-up this guide
4. Open up Settings and search for “Transition animations” (be careful not to pick “Transition animation speed” if you’ve got Developer settings on)
5. Tap the setting. If you did things properly, you should’ve gone back to the default home launcher. Don’t worry — this is intentional
6. Open up App management through the hamburger menu, or by swiping up and holding if you’re using gesture controls
7. Yes, this is weird, but it is also what we wanted — the default launcher is somehow an app; just swipe up over it to close it, just like you would with any other app
8. Donezo! The home button should now be working properly for you

I adore voodoo stuff like this. But I must admit — for the first time in a long time, I have no clue why this works. To be clear: this is not expected behavior. You should not be required to do exceedingly weird rituals on your phone just to be able to use the third-party launchers properly, especially when you’ve paid for them.

And, let’s maintain that streak of clarity: do I believe OnePlus did this intentionally to keep you from using your third-party launchers? Of course not. That would be absurd. I think that there’s some sort of miscalculation regarding the new fluidity engine. After all, the major change this time around is the introduction of fancy animations. My two cents: it has something to do with that, but that’s the extent of my knowledge.

This is all pretty new still, so I’m not sure how easy it would be to fix, however. That being said, I think that OnePlus should treat it as a priority. I think that I’m not alone when I say that I’m on #TeamAndroid, because of the freedom — which includes customization. Having your major software upgrade — one loaded with numerous meaningful improvements, by the way — breaking a core tenant of the aforementioned fan-favorite doctrine is quite disappointing.

This is precisely what I mean when I say that OnePlus overpromises and underdelivers. It’s not too often, but from time to time, the brand gets itself involved in these situations, where some things are done so right, while others are just executed poorly. I think this is why fans are still referring to OnePlus phones as “underdog” flagships. In reality: they are not. They are super-premium, powerful and feature-packed. One of my favorite things about the OnePlus 13 is how intricate the design is — the materials, the way they change in different lighting. It’s why I fell in love with the model, and it’s also why I have such high expectations when it comes to its performance.

Then I look back: first, there were the disappearing AI features, then I had that entire ghost-charging issue which I shared with you, now — this. Yet at the same time, the AI features are now back, and battery life seems better than ever. I dislike this trend, but I also low-key enjoy it, because it keeps me on my feet. I’ll be honest — I’ve never used a perfect device in the past. There is always something to fix, and something that breaks. And that’s okay.

But navigation and the way users interact with their phone in general? Well, imagine Apple breaking that on an iPhone — not a chance! Let’s get inspired some more then, shall we, OnePlus?