OnePlus 6 and 6T Android 11 update will be a very long wait

OnePlus always prided itself on being able to quickly iterate over its software. It also boasts of listening closely to its community and, when possible, giving in to their requests. One of those revolves around an Android 11 update for the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. It turns out that it will indeed still happen but it won't be surprising if it doesn't happen until sometime early next year or later this year at the earliest.

OnePlus has more or less been religious with its Android updates, party thanks to shipping a near-vanilla Android UI. That was in the past, however, and the most recent version of OxygenOS heaps a lot of changes on that experience which may have affected its agility and stability. The company ran a bit late in pushing out Android 11 to its supported phones and even then there have been reports of problems here and there.

That may also be the reason why the OnePlus 6 and 6T aren't getting Android 11 yet. To be fair, the phones were launched in 2018 and have already met their "quota" of major updates with Android 10. That said, the company did say they will be looking into making it possible for the phone, and, fortunately, it seems that will indeed be the case.

Unfortunately, OnePlus says that the open beta for the OnePlus 6 and 6T Android 11 won't start until August this year. Considering all other factors, like priorities and Android 12 for more recent phones, it might not be until late 2021 or early 2022 that this actually rolls out. Presuming OnePlus doesn't run into showstopping bugs that will prevent its modified OxygenOS 11 from running on the older phone, that is.

This revelation was just one part of the company's monthly Q&A, the rest of which focused on complaints about numerous bugs. The good news is that OnePlus has already fixed those and users need only to wait for updates to those affected apps.