Essential space - how essential is it?

Can we expect more features with Essential key in future?

I assume that custom ROMs will facilitate better usage of this additional hardware.

I wanted to share my initial experience and impressions of the Essential Space feature on Nothing OS.

I really like the core idea behind Essential Space, the concept of having a dedicated place to collect notes and ideas is appealing. However, in its current state, it feels very much like an early-stage concept.

While I appreciate the ability to share notes, I feel there isn’t a strong ecosystem built around it yet. Currently, audio recordings and notes seem somewhat isolated within Essential Space.

One feature that would be incredibly useful, in my opinion, would be the integration of geolocation tagging. For example, the other day I was driving on the highway and saw a very charming town. I wanted to quickly make a note like, “Remind me to check Google Maps for towns in this area.” Unfortunately, Essential Space seems primarily focused on interacting with images, and even that process feels quite slow. The data is sent to a server for processing and then sent back to the device.

I’ve also been using it in Italian, and I’ve noticed that it frequently makes mistakes with words, leading to inaccuracies in the transcribed notes.

While I understand the trend of incorporating AI into everything, it needs to have genuine utility and purpose. While the idea behind Essential Space is interesting, at the moment, it feels more like potential than a truly useful feature in its current implementation.

These are just my initial thoughts, and I hope they are helpful as Essential Space continues to develop. I’m looking forward to seeing how this feature evolves in the future.

Carl Pei has already stated that the feature will be updated based on user feedback.

Ok so i tested setting up reminders in the essential space, so once i was done with recording audio, i kept looking at my upcoming essential space widget. But it doesn’t show up there, as it should cause i thought it analyses and sets a reminder. But what is happening with me is i record an audio, set a reminder but the app doesnt start analysing it until i open essential space and click on the audio. Once I’m in, is when it starts analysing and sets reminders, is it happening with anyone else?. Or is it supposed to be this way? Idk.

While everyone seems to be excited about the new Nothing Phone 3A series and its camera modules, I’ve found myself getting excited about something different—the Essential Space feature. Let me explain why this matters to me.

As a writer, my best ideas often come to me first thing in the morning. Inspiration doesn’t follow a schedule, and I need a way to capture it immediately. A key feature like Essential Space allows me to do that: record my ideas as they come and revisit them later. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!

But it’s not just for inspiration. I’m also studying for some certification exams, and these materials are no joke. One of my textbooks alone has almost 5,000 pages (including labs), and then there are the 80+ hours of lectures to follow. Taking notes and highlighting in such dense content is a real challenge.

So when I first heard about Essential Space, I was beyond excited. I eagerly waited for the sale to go live, and within 30 minutes, I had ordered the 3A Pro just for this feature. I honestly didn’t even care about the camera module. Unfortunately, in my region, the 12GB version of the 3A wasn’t available, so I chose the Pro instead.

Now that I’ve had a chance to use Essential Space for a day, I wanted to share my initial impressions and why it’s been so valuable for me:

Why Essential Space is a Game Changer for Me:

1. Easy Idea Recording
   I can quickly record my thoughts or inspirations without any hassle. It’s incredibly convenient for me as a writer and helps me capture fleeting moments of creativity.

2. Summarizing Lectures and Webinars
   I’ve been using Essential Space to record and summarize long lectures. It’s made managing all my study materials so much easier.

3. Scheduling Webinars
   Essential Space has helped me schedule webinars more efficiently, making my life as a student and professional much more organized.

Although I’ve only been using the feature for a day, I’m already seeing how essential it can be. But there are a few things I think could improve the experience:

Suggestions for Improvement:

1. Voice-Only Recording Option
   It would be great to have an option to record voice notes without automatically capturing a screenshot. This would save storage space, as the main use for Essential Space is usually just voice recording, not the images.

2. Longer Recording Time
   The current limit is 10 minutes, but in meetings, webinars, and lectures, recordings can easily exceed that. It would be fantastic if we could extend the recording time to at least 30 minutes. I often have lectures that are over 100 minutes long, and constantly checking if the recording has stopped is a bit of a hassle.

3. Flip to Record Feature
   A Flip to Record function would be awesome! I know it’s likely coming in a future update, but it would be helpful to have the ability to start a recording simply by flipping the phone. Also, displaying the remaining recording time on the Glyph interface (e.g., a 30-minute max with a visible timer) would be very useful for better management of recordings.

4. Sharing or Copying Media from Recorder to Essential Space
   It would be great if we could copy/paste screenshots and voice notes from the recorder into Essential Space directly. That would streamline the process even further.

I truly believe Essential Space has massive potential, and I hope the team at Nothing takes these suggestions into consideration for future updates. I’m excited to see how this feature evolves, and I think it’ll be incredibly helpful for users who want to make the most of their ideas and content.

For now, I’ll continue to use it and recommend it to others. It’s an essential feature that I think more people need to appreciate.

Cheers, and have a great day!

Amudhan_Sundararajan how do you switch on that recorder for meetings?

kanishka_0

As a student I find essential space to be one of the most useful AI feature. It helps me with remembering my classes schedule, so I get schedule every Monday for my classes and it gets lost between multiple of photos I take later, so instead of scrolling and finding my schedule every day I just use essential space not only if organizes it but also reminds me of it and it helped me 3-4 times coz I forgot I had classes but thanks to the reminder.

The reminder feature is really good .

Other than reminders and keeping my ID’s I still haven’t used much of essential space yet.

RaymundAshley

RaymundAshley If you’re going to record a short note, you can press and hold the essential key to record it. However, if you want to record a longer voice note, there’s a workaround. You need to extend the screen timeout to 20-30 minutes. Then, press the essential key and tap on the microphone icon. This way, you can record up to 10 minutes. In my opinion, 10 minutes isn’t long enough, but that’s all we have, so we have to work with it.