Oppo is picking up the Alert Slider from OnePlus phones

Ben Schoon | Aug 29 2023 - 4:49 am PT

After Oppo’s software and hardware have become more evident in OnePlus devices, there’s now an element going in the other direction, as the Oppo Find N3 Flip is the first Oppo device with an Alert Slider.

The Oppo Find N3 Flip is a pretty moderate upgrade over its predecessor, but there’s one feature that we didn’t really expect. Oppo’s new flip phone will be its first with the Alert Slider, a feature taken directly from OnePlus devices.

OnePlus has offered the Alert Slider since 2014’s OnePlus Two, with only a few devices (OnePlus X, OnePlus 10T, and various Nord releases) skipping out on the feature. With the slider, users are given a tactile switch to move between ringer, vibrate, and silent modes. It’s similar to the mute switch on iPhones but a bit more flexible in how it can be used.

The Find N3 Flip adopts the Alert Slider along its left side, with the switch visible in one of Oppo’s images of the device (as highlighted below). On its website in China, Oppo calls the Alert Slider (translated) the “Three-Stage Button” and describes it as follows.

Gently swipe, elegantly isolate the disturbance.

That sure sounds like an Alert Slider to me.

Like on OnePlus devices, the Alert Slider on the Oppo Find N3 Flip will be able to switch between ringer, silent, and vibrate modes. It will be interesting to see, whenever the Find N3 Flip launches globally, how the switch handles direction when the foldable is closed, as its position would invert the controls.

It’s unclear if Oppo plans to use the Alert Slider on future releases, but it would certainly make sense. As OnePlus has picked up some of Oppo’s better features, it would certainly be a nice move for Oppo to finally take advantage of what is arguably OnePlus’ best hardware feature.