Nothing OS 4.0 Beta on Phone (3a) Series - Lock Glimpse & Future Plans

Akis · 2025-10-24T17:20:00+00:00

![](https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-10-24/1761326648-151450-glimpse.jpg "banner") Hi everyone, Today, we rolled out the Nothing OS 4.0 Open Beta for the Phone (3a) Series, which included Lock Glimpse and sparked a lot of questions. We had planned to cover this next week as part of a new product announcement, but we wanted to address it now to be transparent and provide you with the full context. Building Nothing from the ground up hasn’t been easy. We are the only smartphone brand in the last decade that has successfully launched, scaled and developed full end-to-end capabilities. This is no small feat in a market defined by high entry barriers, from massive capital requirements and complex supply chains to intense competition. One of the biggest challenges for any new entrant is managing the BOM (Bill of Materials) cost, which is higher than that of established players. On top of this, most brands also have software-based revenue streams, the most straightforward being pre-installed partner apps and services. This is a common approach across the industry, including for established brands like Samsung. For us, this means operating on razor-thin margins and making careful, deliberate choices for every aspect of the product while still delivering an optimal user experience. As we continue investing in hardware and software innovation as well as sustaining our growth, we need to explore sustainable revenue models to avoid passing costs and ensuring optimal pricings for our products - especially for entry- and mid-segment products. Moving forward, on select non-flagship devices, we’ll start including a carefully considered selection of third-party partner apps and services that don’t disrupt the Nothing OS experience you love. These are apps most people install on day one, like Instagram. They’re not random - we’re working with popular platforms many of you already use daily, and in some cases, these integrations can even enhance performance or provide tighter experiences, such as improved camera or sharing features. As part of this we have a new feature called Lock Glimpse being tested in the Nothing OS 4.0 Open Beta on the Phone (3a) Series. Lock Glimpse brings fresh, high-quality wallpapers to your lock screen, curated to your taste across nine categories. It can also surface timely updates and useful content, designed to enhance your experience, not distract you. A few important details: * On Phone (3a) Series, Lock Glimpse is off by default. * You can enable it anytime in Settings, or access it only by swiping left from your lock screen. * You can customize wallpaper categories, refresh anytime, or disable it completely. * In future updates, you’ll be able to use your own photos, replacing standard wallpapers entirely and making every unlock uniquely yours. * If you choose to turn it on, no personal data is shared. This is standard across the industry, but we’ll always do it the Nothing way - redesigning each element and integrating them into Nothing OS in the most optimal way (default designs look terrible…) - while keeping everything completely under your control, giving you the ability to remove things or turn features on and off as you wish. What’s not changing: our focus remains on delivering the best possible user experience while taking the steps needed to achieve our ambitions. We’ll always: * Keep partner apps minimal and easy to remove * Be upfront about what’s pre-installed and why * Give you full control over features like Lock Glimpse We’d rather be open and transparent about this change and hear your feedback and suggestions. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments regarding third-party apps and services. Thanks Akis **[ UPDATE ] - 30 OCT** Yesterday, we launched Phone (3a) Lite, the first entry-level smartphone from Nothing. As mentioned above, we want to remain open and transparent about the inclusion of third-party apps and services in Nothing OS, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions regarding this change. Continuing on that, we’ve made some new developments regarding third-party apps and services and have begun including a carefully selected range of third-party partner apps and app recommendation services in Phone (3a) Lite. These are some of the most widely used apps globally , the ones most users tend to install on day one. 1. TikTok - EU , UK and Japan 2. Instagram - All Regions ( except Japan ) 3. Facebook - All Regions ( except Japan ) Because these apps come pre-installed, they offer : * Faster startup: These apps launch 50 to 100 milliseconds quicker. * Smarter background performance: App background retention is optimized, so when you switch back to Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, they resume exactly where you left off without reloading. * Better power efficiency: These apps are optimized for power efficiency, helping extend your device’s battery life by reducing power consumption. * Seamless camera access: Using the camera within these apps is smoother, providing a more fluid shooting experience and reducing the chance of lag or crashes. And importantly, you still retain full control. If you choose to, all three apps can be uninstalled at any time. Additionally, some community members have raised concerns about the Meta App Installer, Meta App Manager, and Meta Service. These apps are designed to ensure that pre-installed apps are updated to their latest versions in a timely manner and to maintain their stability. If users wish to disable them, they can do so by navigating to: Settings App > All apps > Tap the icon in the top-right corner > Select “Show system” > Find the Meta apps > Select the “disable” button. However, we recommend not disabling these apps if you intend to use the pre-installed apps, as they are essential for ensuring the stability and proper functioning of those apps. ‎ We are also introducing recommendation services which essentially recommend apps that are curated to enhance the initial setup experience for users by helping them quickly discover essential utility and social apps, rather than searching for and downloading each one individually from the Play Store. A few important details: * It’s only visible during the initial phone setup or when the phone is reactivated after a factory reset. Once the setup is complete, there are no more app suggestions during daily use. * Users have full control over it — you can choose to skip and not download any of the recommended apps. * The recommended apps are verified by a trusted partner, eliminating the risk of malware or low-quality software. If users wish to disable this feature , they can do so by navigating to: Settings App > All apps > Tap the icon in the top-right corner > Select “Show system” > Find “App services” > Select the “disable” button. ‎ **[ UPDATE ] 3 NOV** Hi everyone, Following your feedback and suggestions, we’ve been working on making pre-installed services more flexible and within your control. Starting later this month, you’ll be able to completely remove Meta App Installer, Meta App Manager, and Meta Services from your device. Previously, these could only be disabled. While we recommended keeping them active for better stability of pre-installed apps like Instagram or Facebook, we understand that some users prefer full control over what stays on their device. We’re aiming to roll this out by the end of the month and will confirm once it’s live. Thank you for your continued feedback. It helps us keep improving while staying true to our promise of openness and user choice. Akis

Arya

Akis

Thanks, Won’t be buying Nothing Phone from next time!

You guys found the best way to lose your core customers.

Kumar_WeygXjgLSV

Arya i really hate Lock Glimpse[ glance in other phones].

Anonymous996

Wow non flagship bloatware offered just for us

Great move was totally overwhelmed by the commitment and passion you have for your customers

Totally worth paying for bloatwares👍🏻

SmaranHolkar

Anonymous996 it’s not activated by default so it’s alright.

roxe12345

let’s add bloatware to a bloat-free os! such a useless feature that no one asked for.

Truly_Lokesh

Akis sorry akis I Bought Phone 2 and Phone 3 and CMF Phone 2 pro for cleaner experience not for the bloatware, if this is the case, I feel it’s not right thing to do.

Flocky

If Nothing decides to add bloatware, it’s not really Nothing…. This kind of decision may convince me to leave this brand I trust for something more known and stable like Google and their Pixel phones. I’m very disappointed by this decision and I sincerely hope that this will be sorted out

JP

If this comes to stable nos4.0 I’m not going to update…😂 not expected from nothing 🫠

TupePotato

These comments are too sensitive 🥺.

You can uninstall Instagram easily. There’s a reason why behind all these and they carefully thought of it without impacting the core of the Nothing OS and what it stands for.

Flocky

TupePotato Still shouldn’t be a thing, that’s the whole Nothing mindset that just exploded with one update

JP

TupePotato yup…but people are commenting about glimps… not Instagram

AbiS_MjZL72iTVk

TupePotato What if there comes a time, where you can’t uninstall the bloats , nothing is not foolish company to abruptly start like that, they know how to slowly go there …That’s the problem

Imagine One year from now , Nothing says the bloats can’t be uninstalled, but you can still disable them … or just hide the apps you dont want from the app drawer ..so easy ?

etidorhpa

If I have the ability to uninstall any and all the apps I don’t like I don’t mind if you add them.

Akis

etidorhpa this is exactly it - ultimately you can remove the apps you don’t want and disable any feature

TupePotato

JP You can literally turn it off. Its your discrete if you want it enabled. Why is it so hard?

AbhinavSaxena_lRbHCjO2cK

Instead do something like apple tv,music etc ,do diversify your earnings rather than putting bloatware

AbhinavSaxena_lRbHCjO2cK

AbhinavSaxena_lRbHCjO2cK They can literally genrate a service that people will pay to use if it’s good ,like apple music does, or they can even give cloud storage

Apofex

AbhinavSaxena_lRbHCjO2cK good idea

thisiskret

It isn’t too late to back out and apologize

Truly_Lokesh

Please we all love this brand, let’s be the Nothing way not the way other way, more power to Nothing.

AbhinavSaxena_lRbHCjO2cK

TupePotato bro you don’t understand this is just starting if we don’t raise voices now ,they will soon add more

JP

TupePotato i know…did adb uninstall on my old realme phone ..will do on nothing as well…but you can’t turn off that left swipe on lock screen thing… even after uninstalling glimps…you can’t turn off that left swipe gesture.. it will be there and when you swipe it will take you to black screen🤷🏻 if they implement this as other chinese brands

You can check and update here if that is happening with nos or not… it will be helpful

Anonymous963

Sadly this was always going to happen I guess. Nothing lasts forever - it was good whilst it lasted though!

Now they got a taste of the Chinese bloatware money I suspect they’ll be shoehorning it in left right and centre.

shadoe17

Akis this is quite a reasonable PR statement. Thanks for being transparent about this new albeit controversial addition to Nothing OS 👍🏻

Thanish Thahir

Akis on select non-flagship devices

This is something I never expected. Again, with all due respect - isn’t the whole point of non-flagship devices to let users experience clean design and software at an affordable price?

So what’s the point of adding stuff like this to non-flagship devices?

By the way, no puns intended - I genuinely love Nothing to the core, but this one just felt off.

Truly_Lokesh

Thanish Thahir your response seems reasonable, why should non flagship users have ads and bloatware.

im using phone 3 I don’t have any issues, but still I stand with users.

SinXCosXTanX

AbhinavSaxena_lRbHCjO2cK Yes but this is like a slippery slope, once you fall for it there is no coming back