A much-needed Android skin overhaul

Vivo has been teasing its OriginOS Android skin for some time, promising a major overhaul of its polarizing Funtouch software. Now the company has finally presented the new skin at its developer conference in China and gave us an insight into how it stands out from the rest.

For starters, the OriginOS homescreen makes extensive use of rectangular and square widgets, with Vivo calling it the Klotski grid. This refers to Klotski puzzles with rectangular and square puzzle pieces.

These widgets can also provide so-called “nano-warnings,” which show constantly updated information that is similar to Windows Live Tiles. Examples shown by Vivo include flight information, weather, and courier updates.

The company also relies on the real world for wallpapers and backgrounds in Origin OS. For example, you can opt for a sky background that shows various weather effects such as clouds and wind. Vivo claims that the clouds were taken from different regions and that the wind is influencing them dynamically.

Another example of how Vivo turns to the real world for inspiration are wallpapers that mimic the time of day, are brightest at noon and darkest at night. Finally, the company is also promoting live wallpapers with a time-lapse of blooming flowers, with users being able to adjust the animation speed as well.

It also looks like users can still switch between OriginOS and the polarizing FunTouch skin. Hopefully there isn’t a significant performance or memory hit when it actually does.

We don’t know much else about Origin OS, such as: B. a rollout schedule, global availability or supported devices. We have contacted the company for more information, but the company’s developer conference will continue tomorrow. We therefore expect to hear more details soon.

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