How to get your invite to buy a One Plus One.

If there’s one thing I have noticed while trying to get an invite to buy a One Plus One is that One Plus are going to make you work for it.

Recently they have been rolling out large batches of invites prior to their new pre-ordering system which has made it easier for a lot to get an invite, in fact this is how I have managed to get mine too. All you need to do is know what is going on and be prepared to drop what you are doing and dash to your computer. Keeping your phone on you at all times is essential.

The following is a list of tools you will need in order to succeed, if you miss one out you risk missing one of One Plus’s clues. Bear in mind I am not an iPhone user so if you are you may need to tweak this plan for it to work effectively with your tech. Oh and congratulations on converting if you are moving away from iPhone!

You’ll need:

• A smartphone or small 3g enabled tablet.
• A Facebook account.
• A Twitter account.
• An Instagram account.
• A Google Plus account.
• RSS Junkie.
• A One Plus account.
• Space on your main home screen for 2 shortcuts.
• A good dose of patience.

After researching One Plus’s social activity I noticed they drop hints for the odd invite here and there so I came up with a plan to best track their posting and make my tech work for me, after all it’s why I originally bought it. Use your apps and your phone/tablet to their full potential and allow them to alert you to a possible invite.

Firstly I went to the One Plus website and tracked down a list of their social accounts. You will find these either in the footer of the homepage or in the top right section of their blog. Open each social page, including their blog in a separate tab of your browser so you can work with each in turn. Now do the following:

• One Plus Facebook page – Open this page and “Like” it. Once liked simply hover over the “Liked” button and select “Get Notifications”. Now make sure you have the Facebook app on your smartphone or tablet, you are signed in and notifications are turned on.

• One Plus Twitter page – Open this page and follow it. Now make sure you have the official Twitter app installed on your smartphone or tablet and you are signed in. Go back to the Twitter page on your computer and click the cog symbol to the left of where it now says “Following” – select “Turn on mobile notifications”. Lastly, go to your Twitter app, go to “Settings” > @youraccount > “Notifications” > “Tweets” > Make sure the box to the right of “Tweets” is ticked and that “@oneplus” is listed and ticked below.

• One Plus Google Plus Page – Open this page. Hover over the “+ Follow” button at the top of their page and select “Create New Circle”. In the text box type a name, I called mine “One Plus”. Once you have added the page to your circles return to your main Google Plus stream and from the circles across the top select the newly created circle, if you have a lot of circles you may have to click “More” and select it from the drop down menu. When your new circle is displaying the content in front of you look in the top right section of the stream called “In this circle” and click the bell symbol, it will turn red and the word “On” will appear to its right. Now go to your smartphone/tablet and make sure the official Google plus app is installed and you are signed in. Open the app and tap menu > your account > “Notifications” > make sure they are turned on and all selected.

• One Plus Blog – This one’s a bit tricky and a bit less effective than the previous 3 but it will still help. Go to the Google Play Store and download the app called RSS Junkie. This app will keep an eye on the RSS feed of the blog and has the functionality to notify you when it detects a new post. The notifications aren’t quite as fast as push but are “nearly realtime” as stated in the description. This is what I mean about it being the least effective option as sometimes the notification comes through almost an hour after the post has been posted! Open the app and manually add the feed for the One Plus blog. You can do this by adding the URL http://www.oneplus.net/blog/feed/ and tap “Add”. Once added tap Menu > “More” > “Settings…” > Make sure the box is ticked next to “Enable Notifications” and set your notification options like vibrate etc.

If set up correctly the above will enable you to automatically receive notifications whenever One Plus post new content The next few points are for you to check manually:

• Instagram – Download and install the Instagram app on your smartphone/tablet. Sign in and follow the One Plus instagram account “@oneplustech“. Keep an eye on this account as they sometimes post pictures of a screen displaying an invite code. You never know you may be a lucky one!

• Home screen shortcuts – (For this point I’m using the Android Chrome app on my S4, other browser apps may vary). Open chrome, type www.oneplus.net/blog into the address bar and go to the site. Tap Menu > “Add to home screen”, this will add a shortcut to your home screen. Do the same for https://forums.oneplus.net and log in using your One Plus account. Now you will have 2 very useful short cuts that will enable you to keep a close eye on what’s happening. I recommend checking the forums regularly, especially the “Announcements” and “The One”.

Now you have everything you need to be able to keep a track on One Plus’s social activities. Even though you will be receiving notifications for some, make sure you check all of it regularly as you never know what and when they are going to post. Look out for posts like “Keep and eye on the forums for a special event happening in the next 24 hours” and be prepared to drop what you are doing and get on your PC or device to buy your new One Plus One!

Make sure you interact with them and spark up conversation with them and other members across the social sites, you never know they might like you and just send you an invite of your own privately.

This is how I managed to get mine after months of waiting, now I just have the painstaking shipping to endure!

Let me know if it’s working or if it’s worked for you. Maybe you did something different? I’s love to hear about your experiences. Comment below and share your knowledge 🙂

Thanks for reading