Hey community!
I recently attended my second board meeting as Community Board Observer. If you missed my digest from my first board meeting for Q4 2024, do check it out for information on what was discussed previously! Here’s what I talked about with the board this time around:
Firstly, the successful launch of the Phone (3a) Series and how Nothing has seen higher than expected sales as a result of this. I’m seeing that you’re really enjoying the colour options, especially the grey in the Phone (3a) Pro and the more vibrant blue Phone (3a). I heard great feedback relating to the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 5G chip choice as well as the price to performance ratio across the series.
I mentioned that you’re really enjoying the new LUT preset feature in Phone (3a)’s native camera app, which will be rolled out to previous devices too. Some of you have been sharing your preset creations, and even experimenting with using AI to create them too.
We also discussed the Community Edition project which is back for 2025. We’ve had an overwhelming amount of high quality submissions this year - almost 700 total across the 4 categories! Submissions and voting are now closed. Keep an eye on nothing.community for the winner announcement.
And lastly, the debut of Essential Space. From what I’ve seen, people are enjoying and finding uses for the current features and there’s high demand for more, which are definitely on their way.
I told the team that it wasn’t clear enough that some of the features mentioned during the first Nothing TV episode - for example, auto categorisation and conversation recording - are work-in-progress and not yet released, and asked them to be more clear on current vs upcoming features and expected timelines in future.
I also raised your concerns relating to Essential Space usage limits which were observed recently. As a result of your feedback, the team have increased the limit to a level that will comfortably accommodate the vast majority of users.
Some users also noticed a subscription popup when installing the APK on non-3a series devices. Rest assured that there are no plans to release a paid subscription for the current set of Essential Space features. In the future, there may be a tiered system where the current core features remain free, and more advanced capabilities are introduced under a paid tier to help cover the server costs required to support Essential Space’s AI. Should this happen, the team will ensure clear communication in advance.
I saw lots of you asking whether Essential Space is coming to older Nothing devices too. Essential Space is tied to the Essential Key, with the intention of it always being there, available for you to use at the press of a button. This means that Essential Space is not coming to any previous models. However, future devices, such as the CMF Phone 2 Pro will come with the Essential Key.
I relayed frustrations around scripted and slow responses from the support team, especially regarding Phone (3a) series pre-order fulfilment delays. Carl is going to work with the team to ensure the after sales experience is improved, and has already released a statement on this.
Lastly, I presented some ideas to the team on enhancing the community online. These suggestions included a referrals / loyalty scheme, improving the feedback loop between customers, Nothing and the CBO, and other potential additions to the community such as an official wiki and firmware repository; which would enable self-service software repairs and reinstallations.
It is clear that community initiatives like this are a high priority to the business - and if you have any comments on these suggestions, or any suggestions of your own, please feel free to drop them below!
Thanks for reading this digest - I hope you found it useful! 2025 is shaping up to be a really exciting year for Nothing and I’m excited for what comes in the coming months.
Speak to you all soon <3
