My Honest Criticism of the New Status Bar Icons

offcolor · 2025-11-21T17:23:54+00:00

[upl-image-preview uuid=e15f944e-e3e7-48cc-a1e0-c158f1ba714b url=https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-11-21/1763746042-652672-nothing-35.png alt={TEXT?}] [upl-image-preview uuid=ff100eb7-54c5-4f6e-91ef-31059030e1b9 url=https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-11-21/1763746050-716558-nothing-40.png alt={TEXT?}] I know everyone is *very* excited about the status bar update, so I assume I'm an outlier here. I'm a professional designer that has been making (among other things) icons and design systems for about 10 years now. This change, by my evaluation, is a downgrade. Please note that the inconsistent height and tapered ends of the data icon may be a bug. It appears that the data icon is being stretched vertically, which would account for both of those things. Despite that, I still feel like we moved in the wrong direction here. Thought I'd share my two cents! Both status bar screenshots were taken by me on my Nothing Phone (3). I updated from the open beta to the stable release this morning.

Mazharuddin

I would say previous icons are good

simplex19

JoeDissolvo it’s not, it only looks somewhat similar

shadoe17

I’m kinda imagining if nothing just sticks with their dot matrix style for everything that would be cooler + very strong brand Identity, yes it will be very confusing since dots and battery status, mobile network, wifi etc etc with that style might end up being incoherent in small sizes but would be very cool and unique

CMF1_hacker

JochieSantiago

i didn’t have these icons before beta or during beta. I like the way it looks.

Also, the phone feels more fluid in general usage.

I find he update pleasing and battery life remains great, around 10h SoT, which is same as beta.

I need to play with it some more to see what’s really changed. I enjoy playing with QR codes which can trigger new events now with the camera App.

JochieSantiago

CMF1_hacker these are the idle percent drop on my 3 devices

Xiaomi 15T Pro

Tecno Slim

NP3

In idle during 8 hours of sleep, both the NP3 and Tecno lost 1% while the Xiaomi remained at 100%. All of them had BT off and in 4G/LTE network.

Spark

Even position is different…

Looks better in Changelog (middle wifi) tho..

I’m being too picky here, I know… but I have to be. This is probably their last major update, and I really don’t want the NP2 to stay this ugly in the next and last major update :0

Just my humble opinion, of course. 😅

Coldpaw

I have to say I overall like the redesigned icons, it’s not that I love them, but I think they look good. Yet I agree the spacing looks kind of inconsistent and I don’t know if it’s a a visual trick:

The Wifi icon extends towards the top, while the cellular icon extends towards the right, with the small side facing the Wifi icon roughly against the lower two bars, it at least appears there seems to be a larger inbetween them when compared to cellular and battery.

HrishabhPayal

Hope the team implements the stock Android 16 status bar 🙂

Coldpaw

HrishabhPayal It’s funny, people cry for having Nothing themed stuff and own designs, now that they changed them, they cry for stock Android icons. 🫠

themountofmint

Feels like the team just did what requested by many users. Like “you’re deeply asking us to implement new icons, so get it”. Members got what they’ve suggested. I’m okay with current ones as they’re simpler and recognisable.

HrishabhPayal

Coldpaw No one requested them to change the status bar in their own way. People just wanted a change. That’s it. The Android 16 status bar does the job done. It’s also funny that you consider a feedback as crying.

Coldpaw

HrishabhPayal I am not consider feedback as crying, but the demand of switching to stock Android icons.

HrishabhPayal

Coldpaw If it seems like demanding then there are reasons to demand.

Candan

offcolor I don’t have tapered ends on my signal strength icon 🤔

krizxjr

offcolor

Heck, they ruined the bloatware-free os, why not status bar icons too.

I hope the ones who asked for status bar upgrade are happy with the outcome they got, because for me, this is just trash.

Ruining what’s already perfect 😃.

CMF1_hacker

krizxjr it will be the same complainers complaining before and after the change 🙂

Spark

CMF1_hacker But did you like the status bar? If yes, I don’t mind changing it. My only concern is, what’s the rocket science behind the fact that when we apply the Inter font instead of Roboto, the entire system text changes, except for those Network (4G/5G) symbols that still remain in Roboto?

Huna

Why Nothing doing this silky mistake?

CMF1_hacker

Spark I actually quite indifferent but enjoy studying how the community responds. Also, how complaints/suggestions are geolocated. It provides glimpses into what markets prioritise.

For me personally, I couldn’t care less. Except that difference is good for the sake for change. For my online persona, I love the community demanding change and then complaining when it happens. I am attempting to track if it’s two separate groups or the same users.

Sunny

Misinformation. This thread should be taken down.

offcolor

Sunny What is misinformation? My icons still look like this. So do many others’. My guess is that it’s a region/carrier thing. It’s a bug.

CMF1_hacker

JochieSantiago I’m OK with an 5% loss overnight. I sleep about 5h/night.

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