OnePlus is disabling the color filter camera in response to user concerns about the "X-Ray" capability of the OnePlus 8 Pro device.

OnePlus made a post on the Chinese social network Weibo explaining its decision (via Twitter by Mishall Rahman of XDA Developers). The statement explains that due to "privacy concerns" (machine translation), the company "decided to temporarily disable the filtering feature through a software upgrade," which will be released within a week. It goes on to say that a future update will change the software and re-enable the camera.

OnePlus has a similar, shorter statement in English on the OnePlus Forums. The company further explains that while it will update OxygenOS to limit camera capabilities, it will not globally lock off the color filter camera or its associated "photochrom" filter effect. This only applies to OnePlus' China-specific OS, HydrogenOS.

We reported last week on the apparent x-ray power of the OnePlus 8 Pro. There is no clear answer as to why this effect occurs, but the color filter camera filters out certain frequencies of light, allowing translucent plastics, glass, and fabrics to show through.

Ironically, in our review of the OnePlus 8 Pro, we struggled to find significance for the color filter camera because its use case seemed so narrow. We praised the device's 48MP main camera and 48MP ultra-wide rear camera, but it was not enough to make the OnePlus 8 Pro one of the best camera phones like the iPhone 11 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus.

While it seems unlikely that someone would use this unintended feature for an improper purpose, OnePlus is playing it safe while it recalibrates the software that drives this camera. The statement also mentions that fake photos of this camera's capabilities have been circulating online, and while this decision seems a bit drastic, it was probably taken to counter misinformation.

While this is disappointing news for OnePlus fans who enjoyed the photochromatic sensor, there is still hardware to look forward to: the OnePlus Z appears to be the company's next budget device, borrowing features from the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, but at a lower price.

Further down the road, the OnePlus 8T and 8T Pro are expected to arrive around October.