OnePlus joins Wireless Power Consortium hinting at OnePlus 8 feature

What you need to know

• OnePlus has been spotted on the list of supporting companies for the Wireless Power Consortium.
• The company's next flagship OnePlus 8 is rumored to use wireless charging.
• Joining the consortium is no guarantee that the next phone will use the feature.

After hearing rumors that OnePlus would be including the long-awaited wireless charging feature on the company's next OnePlus 8 flagship phone, sleuths over at MobileScout spotted the company on the list of supporters of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). The WPC is the industry body that controls the Qi wireless standard, the unified wireless charging technology that all major phone makers use.

Many phone makers also augment wireless charging with their own proprietary flavors. Samsung has had its own fast wireless charging, and Apple offers a faster wireless charging protocol that works with the newest iPhone models. In the past, OnePlus has shied away from wireless charging in favor of its own Warp charging. Warp charging gives you a very high 30-watts of charging power and can blast a phone from sea level to 70% in 30 minutes.

While wireless charging hasn't reached nearly those speeds, the technology is certainly mature and available on almost all competing flagship devices. The lack of wireless charging on OnePlus devices has been particularly curious. For one thing, the company prides itself on offering flagship-level hardware at bargain prices, so wireless charging would seem like an easy box to check. For another, partner company Oppo, also owned by Chinese giant BBK Electronics, has been part of the WPC for a year now, and the two manufacturers share technology often.

Joining the WPC is no guarantee that a future OnePlus phone will use wireless charging, or that the phone to use Qi charging will be the OnePlus 8. However, it is clear that OnePlus has finally decided wireless charging is a technology worth investigating for its future.