Credit: OnePlus

OnePlus thrives on trends—if other smartphone makers are doing something, you can bet OnePlus is going to have a take. The company recently confirmed it's ditching the storied alert slider in favor of an Apple-like shortcut button called the Plus Key, and that's not the only trend it'll chase with its latest phones. OnePlus has also announced an expanded collection of AI features for translation, photography, screen capture, and more. OnePlus isn't breaking new ground here, but it is cherry-picking some of the more useful AI features we've seen on other phones.

The OnePlus approach covers most of the established AI use cases. There will be AI VoiceScribe, a feature that records and summarizes calls in popular messaging and video chat apps. Similarly, AI Call Assistant will record and summarize phone calls, a bit like Google's Pixel phones. However, these two features are India-only for now.

Globally, OnePlus users will get AI Translation, which pulls together text, voice, camera, and screen translation into a single AI-powered app. AI Search, meanwhile, allows you to search for content on your phone and in OnePlus system apps in a "conversational" way. That suggests to us it's basically another chatbot on your phone, like Motorola's Ask and Search feature, which we didn't love.

OnePlus also promises some AI smarts in the camera. AI Reframe will analyze what's in your viewfinder and suggest different framing options. AI Best Face 2.0 (which will roll out later this summer) will analyze and correct things like closed eyes or "suboptimal expressions." This sounds like a OnePlus version of Google's Best Take, but we're not complaining—that's a great feature. The OnePlus can work with group shots of up to 20 people, and you can even feed it photos taken on other phones to fix everyone's face.

Core to OnePlus' approach is a feature called AI Plus Mind, which is integrated with the Plus Key. It allows you to capture content on your screen and save it to an AI-curated "Mind Space." Again, OnePlus appears to be taking a page from Google's playbook with its own version of the Screenshots app. The OnePlus feature can allegedly extract useful information, like calendar appointments, so you don't have to add them to your agenda manually. A future update will also add automatic categorization of content in Mind Space.

The Plus Key includes customizable shortcuts and connects to the "Mind Space" screen recorder.
Credit: OnePlus

The company says it's using a hybrid approach to processing, which keeps sensitive data on your phone and only reaches out to the cloud when more power is needed. The specifics of the OnePlus system are still vague. Samsung includes a toggle to disable cloud processing, but Google just does what it thinks is right behind the scenes. We sure would like it if OnePlus borrowed from Samsung here.

OnePlus is following Samsung's lead in at least one way. When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series, it included the first example of Gemini working across apps outside of Google's Pixel phones. Now, OnePlus will follow suit. As part of the OnePlus AI rollout, Gemini will gain the ability to interact with OnePlus apps like Notes and Clock.

Many of these new OnePlus AI features will debut on the company's new OnePlus 13s, a variant of the China-only OnePlus 13T. However, the US and Europe are again being left out of the fun, with the 13s launching exclusively in India. Future OP devices will also be adopting the Plus Key, offering similar quick access to these AI features. Existing devices in the OnePlus 13 family will also get an update enabling most of these AI features. So even if you don't buy a new phone, you're getting more AI.

Wipe that suboptimal expression off your face—don't you know it's the AI era now?