This OEM adopts an iOS 26-like design for its global Android 16 update

Vivo has long offered two distinct Android skins for its phones, with China getting OriginOS and global users getting Fun Touch OS. Some fans have long been calling for Vivo to bring OriginOS to global markets, and that’s exactly what the manufacturer has done. Sort of.

Vivo has announced OriginOS 6 for global markets, replacing the expected Fun Touch OS 16 skin. The new Android skin does not appear to be the Chinese version of OriginOS, but appears to be a hybrid of Fun Touch OS and OriginOS. In fact, scrolling through the app drawer and home screens reveals few major changes. We’ve removed some OriginOS icons (e.g. phone call and album apps) and an “app suggestions” field instead of “recommended apps.”

However, pull down the notification shade and you’ll see redesigned quick settings. These have larger tiles with transparency and blur effects similar to iOS 26, and this isn’t the last time we’ll do an Apple comparison.

The quick settings menu and notification shade look pretty neat, but I still prefer Fun Touch OS, if only because it shows an additional quick settings tile before pulling down a second time. However, I like the addition of a volume bar below the brightness slider, similar to One UI. I would also have liked to see tile resizing here, as seen in Pixel’s Material 3 Expressive update, but that’s not available.

Previous versions of OriginOS also offered nifty widgets on Chinese-only phones, and I’m happy to see more widgets in the first global release of OriginOS. New additions include UV and PM 2.5 index widgets, a device battery widget for accessories, and various note-taking widgets. Otherwise, OriginOS 6 also has a tweaked settings menu, complete with expressively styled boxes and lines dividing each settings entry.

But what about the brand new features? Well, perhaps my favorite addition is the Flip Cards feature, which uses your accelerometer to cycle through lock screen wallpapers when you tilt your phone left or right. I’m also happy to see the motion prompts feature here, which displays moving dots on your screen to combat motion sickness. As someone who gets motion sickness when not driving, I’m really keen to try this.

We’ve also seen a few brands copy Apple’s 3D lock screen clock feature, which allows the clock to adapt to your wallpaper and even appear “behind” elements of a wallpaper. Vivo is no exception, since OriginOS 6 indeed offers a similar functionality, as well as the return of lock screen widgets. Between this clock concept, the fortuitous decision to relaunch the lock screen widgets, the transparency effects in the notification tint and Origin Island (Vivo’s version of Dynamic Island), it’s clear that the manufacturer took inspiration from several cues from iOS. This is a bit disappointing because, despite its tame appearance, Fun Touch OS hasn’t improved Apple’s aesthetic.

On the plus side, vivo is bringing PC and Mac integration to its global phones. This comes some time after its China-only phones first got this integration. You’ll need to install the Office Kit app on your computer, which enables features like mirroring your phone to your computer, file transfers, and note-taking capabilities. However, there is no word on support for the Apple Watch, as seen on recent models in China. Otherwise, vivo says it strives to provide a smooth experience with smooth animations, and it even says the software is certified by SGS for five years of smooth performance.

OriginOS 6 for global users also has a handful of AI features, such as writing tools, intelligent translation features, and summarization capabilities. However, I am disappointed that some tools like recorder transcriptions still require an Internet connection. First of all, I’m not a big fan of most AI tools, but this is one area where the Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 10 series outperform vivo.

I should also note that the Chinese version of OriginOS 6 offers features like object erase for Live Photos and shake-to-share functionality. But neither option seems available in the overall appearance.

Regardless, vivo currently has an OriginOS 6 beta program for the global X200 Pro and Iqoo 13 models. There’s no word yet on a release window for the stable version, but we’ll update the article as soon as we have more details. Now let’s move on to disabling iOS styles.