Nothing OS 3.0 Unveiled: A Glimpse into the Future of Smartphone Software

Nothing OS 3.0 just got previewed with a bunch of interesting new features

If you're a fan of the Nothing Phone, we've got some good news: Nothing has just offered up a preview of the Nothing OS 3.0 software update coming to its devices this October, and there's a whole slate of intriguing new features contained within it. In a video on the company's YouTube channel, Nothing's Software Product Design Lead Yuri Levin describes Nothing OS 3.0 as "the OS we always wanted to make." It took three years of development, Levin explains, but comes with a raft of features designed to improve the user experience. That includes the Nothing Gallery, which is a new photo app that grants you faster access from the camera app and is made using Nothing's own design language. There are new widgets for date countdowns, 'Shared Widgets' that can sync content among different users, plus more widget customization options (including the ability to remove the large clock from your lock screen in order to make room for more widgets). Elsewhere, the user interface has been revamped with updated typography and a fresh 'Dot Engine' that adds new dot-based animations to elements like the device's fingerprint reader. The Quick Settings screen has also been redesigned to give you full icon customization (including changing their size), as well as an auto brightness setting that has been added to the Quick Settings' brightness slider. Finally, the app drawer has had an infusion of artificial intelligence (AI). This means it automatically sorts apps into categories to help you locate them quickly, and it can also suggest apps that you might want to use next based on what it learns from your behavior. Alternatively, you can also manually pin apps to the app drawer if you want to find them more easily and regularly come back to them. According to 9to5Google, Nothing OS 3.0 is "almost certainly" based on Android 15, which is set to be released on all the best Android phones this October. That lines up with the Nothing OS 3.0 beta launch date, which is pegged for the same month. Nothing 3.0's full rollout is expected to arrive around December, so keep your eyes peeled for further updates as we get closer to the general release date.

Nothing OS 3.0 Is Now Official; Here Are All the Key Features

Nothing OS 3.0 open beta starts in October, with the public release following in December. Carl Pei and the Nothing team have been teasing the next version of Nothing OS for a couple of months now. The closed beta started just a few weeks ago. But things were kept quite hush-hush, until today. Carl Pei has finally given us the first official look at Nothing OS 3.0 during the Nothing Ear (open) launch. Let's take a look at the announced features and the release date. As for the changes, they have further tweaked the OS, with better implementation of the N-dot font. There's a new animation engine to power the new dot matrix effects throughout the UI. The company demonstrated this on the lock screen and the weather app. On the topic of the lock screen, it features more customizations. You can easily switch between clock styles, or remove the clock completely and use widgets instead. There are new clock faces, especially a stretched analog clock face, which looks pretty unique and tasteful. The quick settings have received the biggest facelift making better use of the space, you can adjust the size of the toggles similar to iOS 18. They also added a much-requested auto-brightness toggle in the brightness slider. Then there's the new app drawer where you can pin apps to the top to find them quicker. Smart thinking on the part of the Nothing team. If you want a more organized experience then you can switch to the Smart Drawer which automatically arranges the apps into different categories. Carl also talked about a new countdown timer widget which can be useful to keep track of events in real time. You can now share widgets with your friends, for a shared experience. Even add stickers before sharing. Though we're not sure whether it will only work with Nothing devices or other devices as well. Moving on, we got our first glimpse at the new Nothing Gallery app, which will help lower the processing time by 25% faster. The app will also keep track of your key moments, recognizing them with the help of AI and cutting out the object of said moments so you can easily recognize them. And at last, they talked about how more features like AI Upscaling and Super Resolution. This will work similarly to Pixel 9's Zoom to Enhance feature, which uses AI to increase the details of the image when you zoom in. AI image generation is also in the works, again identical to Pixel Studio. Before the live stream ended, Carl talked about when will we get to see these updates hit our devices. The open beta for Nothing OS 3.0 starts this October, and the public release will roll out starting December. They did not provide us with the exact date, but my guess would be, that the beta will start as soon as Android 15 launches. The update itself is might be near completion, and they are waiting on the release of Android 15, to check for compatibility issues, and iron out any last-minute bugs before they release the update. We also spotted the Nothing Phone (3) that shows up as an Easter egg when the company was demonstrating one of the upcoming features. Overall, it looks like it's going to be an exciting month ahead for Nothing fans. Which one of these new features are eagerly waiting to try out? Tell us about it in the comments.

Nothing OS 3.0 to bring AI-powered features, performance improvements, visual refinements and more

Along with the Nothing Ear (open), Nothing founder Carl Pei and Yuri Levin, Software Product Design Lead at Nothing introduced the features of the upcoming Nothing OS 3.0, after a teaser earlier this year. The Nothing OS 3.0 will introduce a range of enhancements designed to elevate the user experience. Visual Refinements: The operating system features a refined aesthetic with redesigned elements such as the Quick Settings panel and lock screen clock. The auto brightness toggle is now built it right into the brightness slider button. Dot Animation Engine: The iconic dot matrix animation has been enhanced with a new engine, providing smoother and more dynamic visual effects throughout the OS, such as fingerprint animation and when the phone is being charged. The weather app shows weather icon in dot matrix style and even offers animation. AI-Powered Features: The integration of AI has been expanded, enabling features like smart drawer that can sort apps into different categories. There is automatic image categorization, and natural language search. AI upscaling or super resolution and AI image generation will be available in the future. Customization and Personalization: Users can now customize their home screens with shared widgets that have interaction option, and the gallery app offers advanced features for managing and editing photos. The countdown widget allows you to track time towards some specific date that you're looking forward to. Performance Enhancements: The operating system has undergone optimizations to improve overall performance, including faster app launches and smoother animations. The photos to gallery transition is now 1.4x faster. HDR and portrait effects are 25% faster. The Nothing OS 3.0 open beta will start in October and the stable roll-out will begin in December 2024. The list of devices and the time-frame of the roll-out should be available soon.

Nothing OS 3.0 shown off in hands-on video ahead of rollout

Nova Launcher's future uncertain as layoffs slash core dev team Key Takeaways Nothing's Ear Open earbuds feature a unique open design for a natural listening experience. Nothing surprised fans with the introduction of Nothing OS 3.0 during the Ear Open launch. Nothing OS 3.0 offers refined typography, better use of the dot matrix style, customizable Quick Settings, a new wdiget and gallery app. Today, Nothing launched its next product in its audio lineup with the Ear Open. The device takes a new approach when compared to past devices, featuring an open design meant to let ambient noise in for a more natural listening experience. For the most part, the design is something you'd expect from Nothing, a pair of earbuds that looks sleek and quite unique when compared to the competition, with audio quality that's also pretty good. Related Nothing's latest OS update adds easy access to ChatGPT Move over, Google and Samsung -- Nothing has hopped on the AI bandwagon Of course, since this is Nothing, the brand also surprised fans by introducing the company's latest OS, Nothing OS 3.0 (via The Nothing & CMF Fan Hub). The introduction of the latest version of the brand's OS comes in the middle of the Open Ear presentation, which can be found on the official Nothing YouTube page. The brand will launch the OS towards the end of the year, with the open beta arriving next month. A new beginning with 3.0 When it comes to the changes, the brand was more focused on making Nothing OS really something of its own, and really refined the smaller things like the typography, making it easier to read throughout the UI. While the N-Dot font that really made a splash through Nothing OS will still be present, it will be used sparingly to add little pops to the overall look and feel. However, the dot matrix style will be used throughout the OS in other ways now, like providing indications for the user whenever the phone is plugged in to charge, or when the fingerprint reader is used. The Lock Screen is also getting a complete redesign, making it easier for users to customize with widgets and other pieces of information. Quick Settings is also getting more customizable, allowing users to really play around, making it as sparse or as dense as they'd like. The brand is also introducing the ability to pin frequently used apps to the top of the app drawer, while also using a new feature that will group apps together in order to make common apps more accessible. In addition to all of the above, Nothing is also introducing a new widget that will allow users to get a visual countdown to some event that is set. Perhaps the most interesting is the new Shared widget, which will allow users to stay connected without saying a thing to each other. And finally, Nothing will introduce its own photo gallery app in Nothing OS 3.0, providing a faster way to access photos and featuring a new system that will highlight objects in your photos and bring them to the forefront for a more playful gallery style. There will also be some AI elements as well, like AI upscaling and Super Resolution. As far as when this will be released, Nothing is targeting December 2024, with an open beta to start in October.