OnePlus 7 and 7T OxygenOS 11 survey irks users over AOD question

OnePlus takes great pride in how it handles customer feedback, sometimes even conceding its position to accommodate their requests. It is, however, far from perfect as this latest incident around a user survey demonstrates. It may have been a simple clerical error but when OnePlus asked owners of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7T about the Always-On Display feature that came with OxygenOS 11, those owners were up in arms because that feature was not made available to those devices without prior warning or explanation.

Always-on Display has been one of the most requested features from users to the point that OnePlus eventually agreed to implement it. It arrived together with OxygenOS 11 and Android 11 and users were definitely excited about it. Unfortunately, it seems to only apply to the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 8 generations as the stable OxygenOS 11 update for the OnePlus 7 and 7T was silent on that feature.

Now OnePlus is asking owners to fill in to give their feedback on the update and asks about their experience with the AOD feature. Users definitely made their displeasure known on the OnePlus forums for what they considered to be an insulting question given the context. It is, of course, a single non-essential feature and might have been just a clerical error but the incident has rubbed salt on still open wounds.

The OxygenOS 11 update for both phones has been widely regarded as buggy and, for some, almost unusable. There is, of course, no way to go back to the older Android 10 version, especially without wiping one's phone completely. A vocal number of users have not only called out OnePlus over it but also stated their departure from the brand.

Some of those have pointed out this survey as an example of how OnePlus doesn't listen or pay attention to user feedback, which makes the exercise moot and academic for them. To be fair, though, there are also instances where OnePlus has indeed listened or at least acknowledged the community's concerns but its silence over the OnePlus 7 OxygenOS 11 update and missing AOD feature isn't helping its cause.