Don't believe the rumors: It is unlikely Oxygen OS to be rebranded as 'H2OOS'

Yesterday, a rumor started on Twitter. The rumor centered on what the new name might be for OnePlus’ and OPPO’s combined operating systems. OnePlus’ is currently called Oxygen OS and OPPO’s is currently called Color OS, but we know they will combine under one banner at some point this year.

Mukul Sharma posited that this new name might be “H2OOS.” This would be a combined version of two names OnePlus has used: Oxygen OS and Hydrogen OS. The latter of those is what OnePlus called Oxygen OS in China before it started using Color OS in that country.

Sharma’s evidence of this rumor is a trademark OnePlus filed for the H2OOS name. This would seem to be pretty strong evidence. However, there’s just one problem: OnePlus filed that trademark seven years ago. For the record, that’s around the time the OnePlus 2 launched.

H2OOS is not the likely name

It is very, very unlikely OnePlus had planned the merger with OPPO seven years ago. It is far more likely that it flirted with the idea of branding Hydrogen OS — which, please remember, is no longer active — as H2OS or H2OOS. To cover its tracks, it filed trademarks for everything, which is a very common practice.

Now, does this refute the idea that Oxygen OS and Color OS would be combined into H2OOS? No, of course not. It does make the rumor much less likely to be true, though, so don’t worry about it too much.

Theoretically, we should find out the name of this new operating system alongside the global launch of the OnePlus 10 Pro. We don’t know when that will happen, but it likely will be in the next few months. Until then, keep being skeptical!