OnePlus Nord 2 OxygenOS is built on top of OPPO ColorOS
The line that divides OnePlus and its distant cousin OPPO is becoming thinner and blurrier. Not long after OnePlus CEO Pete Lau took up a key position in OPPO, OnePlus announced that it would be using OPPO's ColorOS instead of its own HydrogenOS for Chinese models. It didn't take long for the two companies' software teams to merge, and the first fruits of this unification of OxygenOS and ColorOS can be found but not seen in the new OnePlus Nord 2.
OnePlus' announcement last month that it will be merging part of its operations, specifically its R&D, with OPPO may have brought concerns from those on the younger company's side. CEO Pete Lau, of course, downplays the negative impact of such a move and focuses on the positive effects of combining the two's Android customizations. In a nutshell, OnePlus says that it will be able to provide faster software updates because of it.
That promise still has to be proven in action, but at least one part of OnePlus' guarantee is already verified. Anyone using or testing the OnePlus Nord 2 haven't noticed any differences, at least as far as the user experience goes, from any other OnePlus phone. That's despite it actually running OPPO's ColorOS underneath.
According to 9to5Google, this detail was apparently only mentioned briefly in the reviewers' guide for the phone. It seems that most of the ColorOS-related changes happened under the hood, invisible to users' eyes. In other words, OxygenOS has become a skin on top of ColorOS.
Since the changes aren't disruptive in any way, it could ease the worries of OnePlus fans about the merger of these two companies' software. OnePlus promised that OxygenOS isn't going anywhere soon, but it's too early to tell it won't happen eventually. OxygenOS 11 already proved that the company wouldn't shy away from turning the user experience away from something its customers have been used to, and it might only be a matter of time before OxygenOS and ColorOS become nearly indistinguishable.