The OnePlus 13s is the first device to feature a lockscreen feature for Gemini that not even the best Android phones have access to.
When the OnePlus 13s released in India, it was noticed that the phone features a new lock screen shortcut option that allows users to directly access Google Gemini. The 13s' Settings refers to this shortcut as “Digital Assistant from Google,” but a shared screenshot from Android Authority shows a logo that is clearly Gemini’s star icon.
You can still access Gemini on many recent Android phones' lockscreen by using your voice, so there’s an argument that the shortcut isn’t entirely necessary. But this shortcut opens up the full app, letting you access your existing chats rather than starting a new query.
This isn’t the only AI feature coming with the OnePlus 13s, as it is the first device to feature new OnePlus AI features like OnePlus AI Mind, a space to collect screenshots, memos and more for easy future access, and Gemini integration with OnePlus apps.
In terms of other hardware, the OnePlus 13s also comes with a 6.32-inch display, a 50MP main camera, a 50MP 2x telephoto lens and a 32MP selfie camera, making it an impressively specced, yet compact, flagship phone compared to other Android phones launched this year. All of this is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and 12GB of RAM, alongside a surprisingly large 5,850 mAh battery.
Will Google introduce something similar on Pixel phones?
The fact that we haven’t seen a similar lock screen shortcut for Gemini on Google's own Pixel phones already is interesting, as current Pixels only offer the usual shortcut options, such as the flashlight or camera.
Google added a Gemini lock screen button in the Android 15 beta, as spotted by Android Authority, but it wasn’t present in the final Android 15 release. We could see this change return as part of the ongoing Android 16 rollout, but so far, the only change noticed in the current beta is in the overall look of the UI, thanks to Google's new Material 3 Expressive design language.
Unfortunately, the OnePlus 13s is currently only available in India and there’s no indication that it will launch globally. However, while we might not see the device on store shelves over here, we would hope that Google still takes some ideas from it and incorporates them into its Pixel series, and that OnePlus introduces this option on its other phones soon.
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