The (un)essential key. How to make it essential.

RichardMulholland

Let me start by stating that I’m a die-hard Nothing fan. I will buy everything they produce the day they produce it. So there’s that. The one thing that I just cannot get my head around is the essential button.

It is a cure for no disease.

And more importantly, it has created its own disease in that I accidentally press that button 10 times a day and have to swipe backwards to stop using it. I know in a recent update, Carl mentioned that so many users use it. I think they’re confusing accidental taps with actual use.

I’ve never met anyone yet who uses it, but I do think it could be very powerful. On my Mac, I use tools like VoiceInk or SuperWhisper or Whispr Flow in order to use voice to text as a great way to send messages and write things (like this post).

I would love if I was able to use the essential key as a dedicated voice to text button that I could use anywhere on my phone. I think this would become a killer app. And when paired with the long press of the essential key for meeting recording (when face down), would feel like they solved for the same kind of problem.

Would anybody else like to see this?

Dan_ie

RichardMulholland

On my Mac, I use tools like VoiceInk or SuperWhisper or Whispr Flow in order to use voice to text as a great way to send messages and write things (like this post).

You just changed my life! Just the efficiency boost I needed. Thank you!

On the other hand, I like the Essential Space, but I like your suggestion too! I think they should allow people to remap this key as they please, giving priority to their own cool stuff like the Essential Space or your suggestion of a Smart STT integration etc. They could even allow mapping the key to multiple things, I think at least 4 different things should be possible.

1 short press triggers STT integration when in text input mode (keyboard open and cursor in text box area)
1 short press when not in text input mode continues to behave as it does today
2 short presses opens app xyz
3 short presses will mute my phone (extra points if this works while the phone is locked)
1 long press will blah blah
etc…

So much potential!!!!

Vast

RichardMulholland I disagree in your saying that “it is a cure for no disease” but what you say is definetly right, if people don’t want to use the EssentialSpace they should have the option to customise the button whatever way they like. It should not be something that is forced onto people.

But I think it certainely cures the disease of wasting time on our smartphones, attempting to be more present in the moment and having a much quicker way to note down, text or voice, the most Essential things we need to think about in the upcoming days/week/months. Using the process of a physcial button, it also attempts to stop you from opening your phone and potentially going onto social media or streaming services you might have visited if you opened up Google Calendar, a comparible notes app, AI or even sent a message to yourself on Whatsapp to remind yourself of something later etc.

The onion man

RichardMulholland It was like that for me too in my first few days with the phone, but after a few days I got used to it and now this button is really comfortable for me, And I use it all the time.

Yes, I would be happy if they added customization functions to it, but I’m sure they are working/will work on that.

I think it’s just a matter of habit and need, because if you don’t really use this function it’s better to have the option to change what the button affects to something that’s more useful for you.

Nothingcanbeatme

For me its entirely different I use it repeatedly and have a good experience with it

I think they should add more features to it

Chinmaya

I mean I think that’s just the case for some people, I seem to use it frequently especially bcs I’m a student and also the flip-to-record is really helpful and their share feature is also pretty great. They’re upgrading it every few updates and I genuinely have a use for it tbh

FabioR 🇩🇪

I think it’s going to be great as soon as we get a system wide integration and a smarter A.I algorithm. I’m excited what the company is cooking right now!

As for me:

I use it frequently to sum up recipes and or information from picture files.

That being said, with nothing’s track record, I am positive that we can change the buttons function or disable it entirely in the future.

Cheers

Brewer Taranov

The first thing I did after buying a phone was to reassign the button to the camera app. I recommend that to everyone.

TonyMontana_yZBWtxmYhL

Brewer Taranov and how (without adb)

Brewer Taranov

TonyMontana_yZBWtxmYhL With adb.

CMF1_hacker

Brewer Taranov adb is the only way for a locked phone from my understanding. Everyone should understand the terminal on their computer anyway!

TonyMontana_yZBWtxmYhL

Brewer Taranov 90% of the people don’t even know what adb is and have no desire to “hack” their phone. So this is not a valid option.

If I wanna hack stuff I go back to XDA Devs, but not my jam anymore, I want functional stuff, not toys to play around.

This should be able to be set from the settings.

This is what I recommend.

Maybe it will be useful someday, but for now it’s just annoying to fill up my folder with accidental screenshots. There should be settings for this.

With GA/Gemini it’s fine, Presse long to activate, add picture if you need. No accidents…

sean (1)

I would use the Essential Key all the time if I could use it offline. All I need is offline transcribing. The phone already does this before sending users’ data to an unnamed, overseas third-party for ‘processing’ which I do not require nor wish to allow for privacy reasons.

If Nothing would unlock this simple feature, which I had assumed would be available at launch, I would be incredibly happy.

RichardMulholland

As I wrote in a previous post, the meeting transcript function is extremely handy, except that it doesn’t give you a full transcript, just a summary. I would always want to have the full transcript for my records and later processing.

Personally, I feel there’s more novelty than utility in the current Essential app, and I’m not sure that there isn’t a better way we could use that key. I’m not suggesting it shouldn’t be available, but if even on double tap it went into the Essential key app in the current form, but on a long press with your phone face up, it did the voice transcription, drop in text functionality.

Then you could have an entire AI ecosystem that existed just around one proprietary Nothing button. So I guess it doesn’t have to be either or, it could be both.

RichardMulholland

Dan_ie So glad you found these tools. I’ve analyzed them all, and for what it’s worth, if you use a Mac, I think VoiceInk is the best from a safety and a price point of view, so definitely lean into that one. The developer has been really responsive, and it seems to be really cool.

Good luck, glad it helped.

Oh, and I agree. There’s a ton of potential here.

Vast You’re correct, and I agree with you. I think it’s probably my bias because I already use tools such as Sublime, MyMind, and Readwise. All of those do better at the specific tasks I need them for than what Essential Space is trying to do.

But again, I do agree that it would make sense for certain people. It’s unfortunately just not quite there yet for me.

But there’s so much potential that could be done. I think what I’m looking for is this as an AND and not an OR. I would just really love the ability to pick up my phone, hold in the essential button, talk to my phone and have it type anywhere. I think that could be pretty cool. 👊💥

PeterGalbavy

I simply don’t understand what it does. I tried it. I recorded a message, it transcribed it but I can’t find the result anywhere. It feels like a summer intern project.

Now, if it could instead just be a programmable key, for example a shutter button, then it might actually be useful.

DavidRobertson

Hey Richard,

Thanks for sharing @RichardMulholland . While most interface elements are customisable, the Essential Key is rigid and protrudes… a design flaw, in my view. This single UX/accessibility issue stops me from recommending my otherwise-great 3A Pro.

I wanted to use Essential Space, but I accidentally hit the Essential Key ~50 times daily (I’m mildly dyslexic, okay). I’d love to remap it to only activate on a double-tap, with Essential Space on triple-tap. Advanced remapping failed, so I modified my phone’s cover to recess the key, a lifesaver until Nothing inevitably adds button flexibility.

As a UX lecturer and former industrial designer, I know good design, and this isn’t it. (Small world, Rich, I’ve read your book Boredom Slayer and found it helpful in my workshopping business!). I hope Nothing fixes this soon so I can recommend their products.

RichardMulholland

DavidRobertson small world indeed, stoked that the book was worthwhile (it’s my worst selling book, but certainly the content that we have done the best of). That’s a genius idea, I don’t use a case (nor do I have the skill) 🙂

Hopefully the team will work on it soon. I think the easiest would be to allow it only to be triggered on a long press or double tap, because even if the ES was valuable, that value would be redundant if it’s full of useless screenshots.)

The onion man I had it on the 3a before this and still make the mistake daily, stoked that you use it all the time, I deffs WANT to use it, I just haven’'t figured out the right use case (for me), if you don’t mind me asking, how are you using it?

Agreed on the customisation of the button, and I’d be completely fine if the only options were other proprietary Nothing tools.

Sticky_PRP 🇩🇪

Yes, I always confuse the button but I still use it regularly

RajeshNayak_YU8BVjy9Fg

I guess I am one of the few people who actually love the essential key, and I wish it could do more.
1. Not sure if it’s my accent or way of speaking, but the summary is never perfect for me. I wish they improved on that, like I don’t have any problems conveying my message to ChatGPT or Gemini, but this is tough.
2. Better management of to-do lists, I don’t want to use another app like Google Keep for this. I wish the essential app could handle it.
Can’t think of anything else right now, will add more later.