One of the nice-to-have things about some Android skins is the Google Discover Feed a right swipe away from your home screen, but OnePlus has never allowed it, instead forcing you to use its not-very-helpful Shelf.
According to a report in 9to5Google, OnePlus will soon allow you to pick between Google Discover Feed and Shelf after beta testers saw the option appear in v4.5.6 of OnePlus Launcher.
Shelf contains widgets that you can customise along with shortcuts to apps and a clever parking location service, but many people just want the option to have the Google feed a swipe away. That feed has evolved through many changes over the years and is basically now the same as tapping on the Google app icon, bringing up a feed of articles you may be interested in along with other timely information like weather and appointments.
Not all Android OEMs have the Google Discover Feed on their phones by default, though Sony, Nokia and Motorola all do. Samsung Xiaomi and Oppo prefer their own Bixby, App Vault and Smart Assistant software respectively but OnePlus looks to finally be giving people the option to not use Shelf.
OnePlus has made its Oxygen OS highly customisable to ensure the user has a personal experience, and it’s odd that the company has taken this long to give people the option to use Google’s feed instead of Shelf. Hopefully the feature makes it out of beta and onto all current OnePlus phones, though.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.