Leaked OnePlus doc tells employees not to answer OS questions related to OPPO

Earlier this week, OnePlus’ CEO Pete Lau formally announced that OnePlus and associated brand OPPO would “further integrate” with each other. It’s no secret that the two brands have been closely related, but now they will move even closer together.

When you consider that the original level of integration between the two companies was foggy, it’s now even more confusing since neither firm is being very clear on what this all means. Tellingly, OnePlus has allegedly issued an internal memo to employees to help address this confusion. Serial leaker Evan Blass obtained a copy of the supposed memo, and it has some startling information.

At the very beginning of the memo, we find the most telling bit of information (or lack thereof). The memo has “Important Note” highlighted and gives instructions on how employees should not respond to any questions related to Oxygen OS, Color OS, or how the new integration affects them. You can see it for yourself below:

In case you can’t read it, here’s the text of the highlighted note:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not respond to any OS or Color OS questions that target the integration announcement. Only use the below response — “We currently do not have any updates regarding the operating systems. Please stay tuned to our official channels.”

This note is concerning, to say the least. If OnePlus was totally confident that Oxygen OS would not eventually be replaced with Color OS (or some sort of hybridization), it would just say that, wouldn’t it? The rest of the memo hits the same points over and over again: nothing is changing, everything will be great, this is all going to be good news for OnePlus fans. Why wouldn’t the company also say “Oxygen OS isn’t going anywhere” to assuage concerns?

Let us know your opinions on the Oxygen OS controversy in our current poll.

Other tidbits from the OnePlus/OPPO memo

There are two other notable revelations from the supposed memo. The first is that it refers to Pete Lau as the “founder of OnePlus.” That’s only partially true. The company has asserted over the years that Lau co-founded the company with Carl Pei. Although Pei has since left, that doesn’t change that he is a co-founder. Now, this might be a clerical error, but it does seem suspect.

In another section, the company gives a canned response to the following question: “Are OnePlus, OPPO, and realme building a joint ecosystem across all brands?” The answer is a trademark deflection, but it does have a semi-juicy tidbit (emphasis ours):

OnePlus is looking at a variety of ways to brings its tech-leading products to more users around the world. In addition to building a seamless, connected ecosystem across its products, OnePlus is also looking at how to bring in other Android, and even iOS, users into its ecosystem.

Obviously, that reference to iOS users could be as simple as offering cross-platform products, such as earbuds. However, it could be a sign that OnePlus has plans to offer more product lines that even iPhone users would want to buy.

We’ll need to wait and see how OnePlus responds to this leak, as this information being disseminated to the public is clearly not covered in the memo.