Built on Android 15, Nothing OS 3.0 is a major overhaul of the company’s Android skin, which was already one of the best on the market. After playing around with the update, I’m pretty happy with the various upgrades that Nothing has made, at least for the most part.
Nothing OS 3.0 was first released as a beta version of Nothing Phone (2a) and is probably the biggest update to the company’s Android skin to date. The full changelog includes many tweaks, but I believe there are four core changes.
It’s one of those things you’ll see across the OS, as there’s nothing major about the design. The “dot matrix” look has been removed in many places and replaced with a new serif text font that looks much better overall. Above all, I appreciate that it is easy to read. But that look hasn’t completely disappeared, and Nothing has started sprinkling dots all over the animations on the OS. Most noticeable is when unlocking the device with the fingerprint sensor, which is a really nice touch.
Additionally, the next big change is the lock screen. The watch has even more customization and several styles to choose from. There are also new options for widgets, giving you more options to choose from (though you can’t use widgets). There is also an option to minimize the clock in favor of space for widgets. It’s a great choice, but I wish it worked for more than just the Nothing widget.
The other big change is in Quick Settings, where the design and editing haven’t been updated in any way. You can now resize the tiles as needed. You can expand the tiles to make room for more words, or you can make them smaller to fit more tiles. This allows you to choose between an information-dense layout, an at-a-glance layout, or something in between. For some extension tiles, such as Wi-Fi and Mobile Data, you can also tap one side to easily switch between them, or tap the other side to display an extension menu. Nice!
this is Really Well done. Frankly, Android should be the way to do this on all devices.
What I struggle with with Nothing OS 3.0 is Nothing’s decision to copy the iOS App Library with the new “Smart Drawer” beta.
The feature, as Nothing describes it, “automatically categorizes apps into folders” to “make them better organized and easier to access.” It’s not a bad idea on paper, but the implementation is just a complete clone of Apple’s terrible approach to app drawers. Folders are automatically added and laid out without any customization. To open the entire folder, press and hold the small icon and tap the three large icons.
It’s certainly not faster than the standard, predictable, alphabetically sorted Android app drawer, and Android already has ways to provide “easy access” to apps. It is also ignored. Android has been able to provide predictive suggestions for apps in the app drawer for years, but there was no support for this.
So why do we need large folders?
I think it would be nice to have versions of these folders at the top of the app drawer for my favorite apps, but the fact that I have to use this layout all or nothing is a spoiler for me.
Why didn’t Nothing copy iOS in this regard? Realistically, it’s likely a bid to appeal to iOS users. I understand. Every Android brand does that to some extent. But I don’t think this perfect clone has any reason to exist. Apple built App Library several years after Android had already perfected its App drawer. I would be shocked if someone voluntarily chose to switch to it.
What do you think about Nothing OS 3.0?
The update is currently available in beta for Phones (2a) and will begin rolling out to all Nothing devices in December.
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