Essential Space: everything it can do

adbo · 2025-10-10T11:24:03+00:00

![](https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-02-27/1740649491-905834-16x9-6-large.jpg "banner") I've seen people asking about Essential Space capabilities and being surprised by features they didn't know existed. So whether you've just picked up your brand new Nothing phone with an Essential Key, or you're a long term user wanting to know what's new, I've put together this thread to highlight all of the different Essential Space usages! Essential Space debuted with the Phone (3a) series in March 2025, the first phone to feature an Essential Key. Since then, we've seen CMF Phone 2 Pro and Phone (3) released with Essential Keys too. You can access Essential Space by double pressing the Essential Key. #### Capture Memories While on any screen, press the Essential Key once. This will take a screenshot, and prompt you to add an optional written note or voice note, then send straight to Essential Space. Alternatively, press & hold the Essential Key to capture a screenshot and voice note simultaneously. Let go of the Essential Key once you're done speaking and it'll head straight into Essential Space for processing. This can also be used while your camera app is open, to capture real-world images instead of screenshots. There is also an Essential Space widget to display last captured memories. You can review, edit, and refine summaries within Essential Space. [upl-image-preview uuid=f050c0ca-eaa3-4b80-8420-7204138ab5a3 url=https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-10-10/1760094246-674466-image.png alt=banner] #### Collections Create collections to organise your saved Essential Space memories. Long press on a memory, then press the 3 dots in the top right and select Add to collection. Add to an existing collection or create a new one. #### Set Reminders In a similar fashion to above, adding a note or voice memo with a specified date/time will create a reminder. Say you come across your favourite band's touring dates and want to remind yourself to check your friends' availability later today, you could say "Remind me to ask my friends about this later", or specify a desired day, date and/or time. This goes hand-in-hand with the Essential Space reminders widgets you can add to your home screen. You can also sync these reminders with Google Calendar by opening Essential Space, tapping Settings, Google Calendar and selecting a Google account to sync with. [upl-image-preview uuid=abc43272-0f6f-4b20-ba34-a727c1a3e006 url=https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-10-10/1760092734-692775-image.png alt=banner] #### Essential Recorder Introduced in August 2025, you can now record whole conversations and let AI create smart summaries, key topics and action items. Simply flip your phone face down, then press and hold the Essential Key to start recording. Alternatively, you can start from the Quick Settings tile. During a recording, single-press the Essential Key when you hear something important to highlight it in the final summary. Once an AI summary is ready, you can then manually fix and complete them if required, so nothing important slips through. You can send your Recorder moments to anyone, anywhere – as an image, PDF, or Markdown. Currently available on Phone (3), Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro. [upl-image-preview uuid=b480d99d-6182-4f36-af1c-943257ea6c7c url=https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-10-10/1760092652-30833-image.png alt=banner] #### Copy from Clipboard / Share to Essential Recorder From September 2025, you can copy a URL, text or an image, open Essential Space and tap the prompt under "From clipboard" to instantly create a collection based on your copied item. You can also use the "share" button on any web link, Google News article, file, etc. and select "Essential Recorder" to add the item to Essential Space directly. #### Call Recording As of October 2025, long press the Essential Key while in an active phone call to start a recording. Currently available on Phone (3), Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro in Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea and Japan. https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-10-10/1760093601-647784-call-recording.mp4 ^[Source](https://x.com/essential/status/1975169169734717738)^ #### Essential Memory An upcoming, optional feature that brings everything together by learning your habits and surfacing forgotten details when you need them most. It will allow you to delete individual memories, and fully disable the feature if desired. ^[Source](https://nothing.community/d/43142-our-first-step-towards-an-ai-native-operating-system)^ #### Exporting Memories Export your daily Essential Space content as images, PDFs, or Markdown files. One tap, fully packaged, ready to share. https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-08-05/1754402128-206668-es3.mp4 ^[Source](https://nothing.community/d/39251-essential-space-is-growing-up)^ This thread will continue to be updated as new Essential Space features are released, so please keep checking back or follow the thread using the button at the top to know what's new! Be sure to also follow [@Essential ](https://x.com/essential)on X for the latest news.

Gratii

I don’t really use it for it’s real purpose I use it more to screenshot snapchat conversation and images because it doesn’t show the user that you have taken a screenshot so it is really overpowered(I hope they don’t fix this) unfortunately it doesn’t work for other apps such as instagram or whatsapp to capture one time photos but it’s alright

Anonymous978

Gratii Insta, whatsapp and streaming services use DRM to completely block screenshots so you can't use essential for that

Vast

Please give us the chance to buy more AI mins in the Essential Recorder !!!!

As a university student, it has been an amazing tool but would love to be able to use it for ALL my lectures and sit downs with lecturers during their office hours! The current AI mins make that impossible.

BSArun

My phone is Nothing 3A I can’t essential key take screenshot.. please help @techonify2

RiyanR

adbo kindly integrate the essential space with Gemini.It will be a very useful one

RiyanR

Anonymous978 no you can actually use it

FabioR 🇩🇪

Just now I was thinking about a new addition for the essential space. That is, if you press the essential key while on homescreen, instead of just having the bottom bar to write notes and record voice. the preview of the screenshot or of the homescreen should shrink down a little bit and reveal a few extra buttons which slowly pop up with a smooth Animation from behind the bottom bar, to reveal a quick access to add notes, set reminders and the glyph-timer as well as other Nothing Phone specific features.

adbo

New feature added: filters

https://x.com/essential/status/1985725719775793574

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Vast

adbo Thank you! More AI mins next!

Apofex

adbo but no update

Nicouschulas

adbo
Great addition! Happy how it continuously gets better

(But sadly only for new customers)

Apofex

Nicouschulas new customers

Nicouschulas

Apofex ?

Apofex

Nicouschulas oh, it was a question

Nicouschulas

Apofex
Only for people you have a np3a (lite,pro) np3 and CMF p2pro
Not for the old models (and concluding the old customers)

RobIgo

I can see Essential Space has just had an update! -

You can now filter by the source of your memories (very handy!)

I hope they add a search bar on the next update.

12/11/25 - edit/update:-
I'm really using this a lot now BUT it really needs a search (and intelligent search) option like Google Keep. If I've stored a receipt from the "post office" as a photo - I need to be able to search "post" or "office" or "post office" and get results.

Please add this functionality it will be a game changer!

Also I have a question - is our Essential Space backed up? If not - can it be (like WhatsApp perhaps to our Google Drive)?

ascenzi

In the nothing 2a plus, with OS 4.0, will I be able to record and jot down voice notes, events and requests with intelligent tracking? If not , i don't think it's correct!!!

adbo

New update: The Detail Page for captured Memories gets a revamp for a cleaner layout:
https://x.com/essential/status/1990812111786668369

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Nicouschulas

adbo
Bro updates the community about new features more then nothing itself
Keep it up

RobIgo

adbo loving my Essential Space, it's a work in progress with sp much potential but already my go to for many days to day captures!

aharbi4

How to disable annoying essential right button as the one who designed it's spacing from power seems look for appearance rather than functionality

Nothing 3a pro, since it is launched every thing is perfect except this annoying feature which cannot be disabled or customized and the only solution is to break it

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