Canvas AOD
Published in
2 min readMay 3, 2021
- Canvas AOD is the hero feature of the OxygenOS 11; it turned users’ photos into simple figures to show on the ambient display and created a seamless and cool animation from Ambient display, Lockscreen, to Home.
- When I came out with the idea, we have no evidence to prove it may succeed, no existing algorithm, no existing similar features for reference, and no time.
- I built a quick prototype and presented our executive officers with good stories to get their support; even the development cost can be very high. Worked with AI partner Meishe to train our own algorithm from scratch. Created a new screen burn-in prevention algorithm to support any kind of possible figures on AMOLED. Tested and got feedback from our private group users.
- It turned out to be users’ most expected feature for the OxygenOS 11. Created around triple user volume than average in the launching event. Exposed on many tech media building up good brand credit on the innovation. Attracted 8,000 audiences for the offline exhibition event, 30 million event article views on Weibo. 56% of online event audiences are not OnePlus users. Our app on Play Store is 4.217 out of 5 currently. Applied for more than 6 patents.
Looking back…
- What we shipped is a beta version or MVP; there are many known incompletions. I’d like to make Canvas recommendations to filter out photos with user’s loved ones, memorable moments, styles of images that our algorithm can do excellent figures. This should dramatically lower down the cost of the photo selection and increase satisfaction. I also want it to be playful by providing style options. Allowing users to anticipate the creation process. Ease of sharing is essential too. This can super-boost the spreading of the feature and brand recognition. But the good news is its high potential makes it a hero feature that we will keep working on OxygenOS 12, let’s see.
- By talking with our users, I learned a lot too. They are looking forward to using our feature on the photos of pets, landmarks… They want their photos shot in landscape orientation can be better supported. They want to use it on the ambient display only but not necessarily to be wallpaper too. Some of these feedbacks were considered but were in lower priority as we were making MVP. It’s really nice to know these true desires from real users still.
