Lock Screen Notification Display Options
If your OnePlus lock screen shows full message previews and app icons for anyone standing next to you, private content can leak before the phone is even unlocked. Oxygen OS lets you dial that down, from full notification text to nothing at all. Pick the wrong option and you either expose messages on the lock screen or miss alerts you actually wanted to catch.
Turn Emergency Alerts On or Off
If your OnePlus phone keeps buzzing with AMBER Alerts or extreme threat warnings you never signed up for, the culprit is the built-in emergency alert system, not a third-party app. Each alert category, plus its ringtone and vibration, can be controlled on its own, so you do not have to mute everything at once.
Set a Custom Ringtone
If your OnePlus phone only offers preset tones for incoming calls, you cannot pick a personal mp3 track by default. Custom sounds only show up in the ringtone picker once the file sits in the right storage location, and Dual SIM setups add another layer if each SIM should ring with its own tone.
Banner Notifications for Apps
Missing an important alert, or getting a banner pop-up from an app that should stay quiet? On OnePlus phones, banner notifications only show while the screen is unlocked and depend on a per-category 'Pop on screen' setting that's easy to miss. If that toggle is off, the alert still lands in the notification panel, but it never appears as a banner at the top of the screen.
Enable or Disable Screen Lock Sound
Every time you lock your OnePlus with the power button, a short lock tone plays automatically. If that click feels unnecessary or gives away that you're checking your phone in a quiet room, you can turn it off - or bring it back later without touching any other sound setting.
Set a Custom Alarm
If your OnePlus phone only rings with one generic alarm sound at the same time every day, you probably have not set up separate alarms for different days or purposes. The Clock app lets you create individual entries with their own time, name, repetition and tone. Without adjusting these settings per alarm, all your wake-up times end up sharing the same schedule and sound.
Allow Messages Through Do Not Disturb
If Do Not Disturb is active on your OnePlus, incoming texts and messaging app pings often vanish into the notification shade instead of alerting you. That is a problem when a contact sends something urgent while you are asleep or in a meeting. The messaging exception setting controls which senders are still allowed to break through.
Change Notification Sound
If the same notification tone keeps going off for every text, WhatsApp message or app alert on your OnePlus phone, it is easy to start tuning it out. OxygenOS comes with a handful of preset tones, and you can add your own audio files once those feel repetitive. The setting that controls this sits a few taps deep in the sound options, which is why many people never change it.
Enable or Disable App Notification Dots
When WhatsApp, Messenger or another app gets a new message, OnePlus shows a small dot above the app icon by default, even after you have already checked the notification shade. This behavior comes from a single system toggle called Allow notification dots, not from the apps themselves. If the dots feel redundant or distracting next to your badge counts, you can switch the whole feature off in one step.
Enable or Disable Touch Sounds
Every tap on a menu item or navigation key triggers a short tone on your OnePlus phone, and that constant clicking can get annoying fast in quiet rooms or during calls. The sound comes from a system setting for touch feedback that most people never touch after setup.
Screen Wake for Notifications
If your OnePlus screen stays completely black when a WhatsApp message or other notification arrives, you have to unlock the phone just to check who messaged you. This happens because the Ambient display option for new notifications is switched off by default on many devices.
Change the Ringtone
If every call sounds the same on your OnePlus, you are probably still using the default system tone. Dual SIM users run into a different problem: both SIM cards ring identically, so there is no way to tell which line is calling. OxygenOS lets you assign a separate ringtone to each SIM, but the option sits a few taps deep in the sound settings, not in the SIM manager.
Snooze a Notification Temporarily
A WhatsApp message or other alert keeps sitting in the notification bar until you open or dismiss it, even when you just need a break from it right now. OnePlus phones have a built-in Snooze option for exactly this case, but it only shows up once you swipe the right way and it stays hidden if notification access for that app is limited. Without it, you are stuck choosing between reading the message immediately or clearing it away for good.
Set a Custom Notification Sound
Every SMS or Messenger alert on your OnePlus still plays the same stock tone, even after you scroll through the built-in sound list twice. OxygenOS does support your own audio files as notification sounds, but the option to load a custom file sits one menu deeper than the regular tone picker. Until that file is placed correctly on your phone, the system keeps falling back to the default ringtone.
Turn Do Not Disturb On or Off
Calls keep ringing through even though you switched on silent mode, or notifications stay muted long after you meant to turn them back on. On OnePlus phones, Do Not Disturb handles sounds, vibrations and call rejection separately from the regular ringer switch, so toggling one does not always affect the other. Knowing where this setting actually lives in Oxygenos prevents missed alerts or unwanted interruptions.
Set Up Bedtime Mode
If your OnePlus screen stays in full color and notifications keep buzzing right before you fall asleep, the built-in bedtime routine probably isn't active yet. Without a schedule, the phone never dims its colors or silences alerts on its own, so late-night scrolling gets no visual cue to stop. Bedtime mode ties grayscale and silence to a fixed time window or to your charging habit, so it works without you touching a single toggle each night.
Silence Alarms After a Set Time
If your OnePlus alarm keeps blaring long after you have already woken up, it can disturb the rest of the household or even the neighbors through thin walls. The Clock app lets you set a fixed duration after which the alarm stops on its own instead of ringing indefinitely. Without this limit, an unattended alarm just keeps sounding until someone dismisses it by hand.
Assign a Custom Ringtone to a Contact
When your phone rings, you often can't tell who's calling until you glance at the screen. OnePlus lets you assign a distinct ringtone to individual contacts, including your own MP3 files, so specific callers stand out just by the sound.
Enable or Disable App Notification Dot
If a small dot keeps sitting on top of an app icon even after you already read the message or checked the missed call, the Allow notification dot setting is likely active for that app. OxygenOS adds this dot per app whenever a new notification arrives, and it stays visible until the notification is cleared or opened. Some apps show it constantly, which gets distracting if you only want the dot for apps that really need your attention.
Volume Key Shortcut to Start Accessibility Feature
If pressing and holding the volume buttons does nothing on your OnePlus phone, the volume key shortcut for accessibility features is probably switched off or linked to the wrong service. This shortcut is meant to jump straight into functions like TalkBack, Select to Speak or Switch Access without opening any menu first. Whether the gesture works from the lock screen or only inside an unlocked phone depends on one extra setting that is easy to miss.
Assign Alarm Functions to Volume Buttons
When an alarm rings on your OnePlus phone at night, the side volume buttons can control it instead of the screen. Some people want a quick snooze, others want the alarm to stop immediately with one press, and some prefer the buttons to do nothing so nobody silences the alarm by accident. If the wrong option is set, you might snooze an alarm you actually meant to turn off.
Change Alarm Sound
If your OnePlus alarm keeps playing the same default tone even after you picked something else while creating it, a separate setting inside the Clock app controls the sound instead. This override also decides whether your own mp3 files or custom ringtones show up as alarm options at all.
Change Ringtone Volume
If calls go unanswered because the ringer barely makes a sound, the ring volume on your OnePlus phone is likely turned down too far. This same volume level also controls notification tones for messages, WhatsApp alerts, and system sounds, so a quiet ringer often means quiet alerts everywhere else too.
Set Up Focus Mode
If certain apps keep pulling your attention away from work, muting each one manually gets old fast. Focus mode on your OnePlus phone pauses selected apps and hides their notifications for a set time, but it only works if you pick the right apps and turn it on the right way.