Warm Winter Good Thing Award
OnePlus has unveiled its latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 12. We know exactly what kind of hardware and features this new phone comes with – including the alarm slider.
The last two OnePlus flagships don't have an alarm slider, and it's been removed in the OnePlus 10T to make room for other internal upgrades. It triumphantly returned with the OnePlus 11 earlier this year and continues to be present on the OnePlus 12 and foldable OnePlus Open. This means that it will probably come back forever.
This is also a feature that we really need to see on other smartphones (Android and iPhone, etc.). 
Just like the iPhone's mute switch, the idea behind the alarm slider is that you can tap on the sound settings on your OnePlus phone without having to turn on your phone. But while the iPhone's mute switch (or action button) lets you switch between ring mode and vibrate mode, the alarm slider adds an extra level — complete silence.
Silent mode is the closest to the Do Not Disturb feature, without actually turning it on in your phone's quick settings. It can mute everything, from notifications and call alerts, all the way to what's going on on your phone.
Being able to do this so quickly is really quite useful, especially since navigating Android's quick volume menu becomes quite complicated. When you have five different volume sliders at your disposal, it can be a little difficult to tell which is which. Especially when both of them are on the screen at the same time. Not impossible, but still somewhat picky.
The instant mute button isn't a perfectly elegant solution, but it does give you the option to cut off the sound when you need to, and it won't be hassle-free.
Even iPhones can benefit from duplicating the OnePlus Alarm slider, and interestingly, the action buttons make this possible. Changing the physical mute switch to provide three options means investing time and effort with little effect. Not only to develop new switches, but also to reorganize the interior of the phone and make software to get additional features.
Such a small change requires a lot of work, and the Action button is designed to be changed on the fly. It's not just a mute switch, but there's no reason why you shouldn't add an extra volume feature to mimic the same effect as the OnePlus Alert Slider, or even do it better.
If a single tap can switch from ring mode to vibrate, a double tap will put you into silent mode. That's not something the action button is actually able to do right now, as it only responds to clicks, but it can happen – and add a kill switch that instantly silences all sounds coming from your phone.
Another benefit of a physical switch is that it allows you to know exactly the pattern of a mute switch or alarm slide just by touch. This is one of the things that is lost with solid-state buttons like the iPhone's action buttons, although this is an unfair price to pay in exchange for user-programmable functionality. At the very least, the haptic feedback of the action button can tell you which mode is being activated when you press the button. Most other Android phones require you to actually look at the screen.
The last time I used my OnePlus phone a lot was a few years ago, but I absolutely miss the alarm slider. Considering how easy it is to turn on Do Not Disturb, which is rather inconsequential in the big picture, it is quite satisfying to be able to turn the phone's ringtone on and off with a switch. Obviously, OnePlus sees the appeal of this, especially given the backlash from users, otherwise it would never return.
I just hope that other phone manufacturers will look at it in the same way. Even if it means copying Apple's action buttons and going down the line.