Its products look pretty good, but Nothing’s software is REALLY something!

Mention Nothing (as in Carl Pei’s new venture, rather than the absence of something), and it is a fair chance that most people’s minds will turn to transparent phones and TWS and brightly colored buds and even chargers. And there is a good reason for this.

In the three years of its existence, Nothing and its sub-brand CMF have been making headlines mainly in terms of product design – all three phones from the brand have come with very striking transparent-ish backs with LEDs on them that light up to reflect notifications and other events (what Nothing calls a ‘Glyph UI’), its TWS have featured transparent or brightly colored buds and cases (with one case even shaped like a lipstick), its neckband came with a metallic colored dial and even its charger turned heads with a specially bright orange shade.

The result? Most people identify Nothing (and CMF) with products that look very different from the routine. This kind of resonates with Pei’s projected objective of making tech different and exciting once more.

And yet, the irony is that appreciating Nothing for its product is a bit like appreciating Albert Einstein for his frizzy hairstyle – yes, it is very noticeable, but what lies beneath that admittedly interesting surface is way more impressive. In the case of Einstein, it was that marvelous brain. In the case of Nothing, it is its software.

Nothing OS: Sticking to clean Android, and yet changing it

It might not have grabbed as much attention as the flashy designs on which it runs or which it helped perform, but Nothing’s products do come with some very nifty software touches. The NothingOS on the Phone (1), Phone (2), and Phone (2a) is easily the cleanest Android skin we have seen in the market, with no third-party bloatware at all.

But it is not just about clean Android. After all, Motorola and Nokia had shown us the joys of stock Android in the past, but with limited success. Nothing’s take on Android is special because the brand has attempted to change the look and feel of the UI without trying to meddle with its essential soul and simplicity. In a way, Nothing’s approach to Android has been all about giving the OS a Nothing flavor without compromising on Nothing’s own minimalistic design language. And contradictory though that aim might seem – to have a distinct flavor of Android without changing it too much – Nothing seems to have succeeded.

It has done this by avoiding cluttering up stock Android with additional features and apps like most other brands do. Instead, Nothing has played on changing the appearance of the interface by using different fonts and innovative widgets and bringing in very distinct themes that get noticed without screaming for attention. The weather and clock widgets with their retro graphics, the slightly retro-looking Nothing app icon pack, and the monochrome effects and wallpapers are great examples of this. The brand has also steered clear of changing the basic Settings app (even after adding its own Glyph Interface to it), something that many other brands (Samsung and OnePlus most notably) have failed to do. The result is a very clean interface, not complicated, and yet VERY different from any other in the market.

As a result, a Nothing phone is one of the few in the market that can be recognized by just looking at its interface (unless the user has changed it very heavily).

Nothing X: The simple, clean audio companion app

Nothing’s software experience is most noticeable in its phones but is by no means limited to it. The brand’s TWS and neckband are accompanied by its very distinct Nothing X app, which, after a slightly confusing start, has easily evolved into the best app we have seen for doing more with a personal audio device. Once again, what makes it work is its clean design and its relative simplicity.

While other brands tend to treat the apps accompanying their TWS and earbuds to accessories, resulting in cluttered and dull-looking interfaces (sometimes devoid even of color), the Nothing X app is designed to be as much a star of the Nothing audio experience as the device it helps you use. The retro fonts are in place again, but you also get lots of white space and often brightly colored images.

There is also a conscious attempt to keep things simple. The tutorials on how to use the device are accompanied by images and animations, with lots of white space and not too much text, making the experience easier for the eye. The language itself is kept at the layperson level – so when you go to the Equaliser settings, you get options like Balanced, More Bass, More Treble, and Voice, which are easier to understand (many brands use ‘Mids’ instead of voice, which can be a little confusing). There are some very nice and subtle graphics touches, too – switching on spatial audio in the CMF Neckband Pro makes tiny particles spread all around the Neckband in the app, indicating that the sound has spread.

The best part is that the Nothing X app experience is pretty much the same whether you are using a Nothing phone, any other Android, or even an iPhone. As a result, we actually like using the Nothing X app. We know that it is easy on the eye and is not geeky or complicated. No, we cannot say that about the apps that are needed to use personal audio products from other brands – they might pack in way more features, but the manner in which they present them is often confusing and/or intimidating.

Regular updates…and with detailed logs, too

But what really makes Nothing’s software formidable in our book is the frequency with which it is updated across different devices. In the three years of its existence, there has not been a single Nothing device whose software has not been tweaked, improved, and debugged, apart from the CMF Power charger, which has no accompanying software. Not only does Nothing roll out these updates frequently, but from what we can see, these reach most consumers within a decent span of time (unlike the week-to-month-long process seen on other brands, although that might have to do with a smaller consumer base).

Also, unlike most brands, which stick to a few perfunctory lines, Nothing’s software updates are generally accompanied by detailed logs, spelling out the changes and improvements made and the issues fixed. The frequency of the updates can be a little irritating for some consumers, but we like the way the brand puts its hand up about most issues and, instead of ignoring them, tries to fix them.

Nothing phone (1) update.
Just look at the change log. pic.twitter.com/NdpVYlPnkv

— 𝕝𝕚𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕣 (@TechLiandr) September 17, 2022

Finally, most older products have so far not been ignored – Nothing has been updating software, even for the Phone (1), which recently got updated to Nothing OS 2.5.5 recently, and the Ear (2) and Ear (Stick) have also got updates well after their release dates (as did the Ear(1) – with Nothing products, software updates are a given. Some might find them irritating, but we would rather a brand try to change things instead of moving on to the next product after having sold the older one (which far too many do).

Some hard challenges on the software front, but Nothing’s impossible…

This stress on software is not really surprising when one considers Pei’s track record. While a lot of folks remember the OG OnePlus for its crazy value-for-money proposition, it was also one of the first flagship-level devices to come with Cyanogen, a very popular Android mod that many considered to be better than even the stock Android from Google. When the collaboration with Cyanogen broke down, Pei is believed to have been one of those who insisted that OnePlus develop its own interface, the now-famous OxygenOS. Well, Pei seems to have carried that software obsession with him to Nothing as well.

It is not all roses in Nothing’s software world, though. The brand’s companion app for its CMF Watch was surprisingly cluttered in comparison to its other apps and a little erratic, too, although it has improved with time and the inevitable flurry of updates. While the brand’s ability to serve up software updates is impressive, to some, it also indicates a tendency to release software that is not fully finished. In fact, there is a conspiracy theory going around that Nothing deliberately holds back features so that it can add them later through updates and get praised for its update record – it is a theory that we find extremely shaky, but it does have its takers.

There is also the challenge of the future. Nothing has so far managed to keep its interfaces relatively clean but is facing increasing demands from consumers for more features, and even for Nothing-flavoured versions of Google apps like the photo gallery. And as more devices get added to the Nothing X app with more features (the brand is moving up the price ladder as seen by its latest TWS) and its consumer base expands, keeping its interface clean is likely to be a challenge, as is ensuring updates reach all consumers as soon as possible. Just how well the brand manages this without adding clutter to its interface or altering its neat, slightly retro feels is going to be interesting.

Knowing Carl Pei, it would not surprise us to see Nothing totally change its software approach and go with an all-new UI in the coming days. It might even develop a whole new, even more bare and spare version of its interface. Or, for all you know, make it as jazzy as its Glyph UI and rebrand it as SomethingOS.

Never rule it out because software is not just an accessory for Nothing but pretty much the power behind the design throne, which is why it will keep evolving. And as Cyanogen will testify, whatever Carl Pei fears, it is not change.