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

itsshibili

Akis many users has only moved to nothing because of the bloatware free software,and what is this it’s totally disappointing and not expected from nothing.

Maggi Goreng

PrimeAyan

Same here — I really appreciate your thoughtful perspective🤩
I believe we’re all speaking up because we genuinely care about Nothing as a brand, and this kind of idealistic debate is actually healthy. The extreme comments aren’t really helping anyone👀

Personally, I’m not completely against features like Lock Glimpse or ad-related functions appearing on Nothing phones — what I disagree with is how they’re being implemented. I just think there’s a better way to handle it.

My view is that Nothing can choose to protect its brand image and grow slowly — it’ll definitely be a tougher road in the short term, but it’s also the only sustainable one. Maintaining the brand’s unique identity is what allows long-term value and word-of-mouth from its community.

Simply put: ads might keep a company alive for a few months, but trust keeps it alive for many years.
Unless their goal is to make a quick profit and shut down the company afterward, maintaining a strong trustworthy image should always be the smarter choice in my point of view🔥

Anonymous903

Stereobasic Well they’re gonna get sued out of existence if they’re blatantly lying. I’m assuming it’ll be something like google discover (just an example) where you pick topics you like to get wallpapers for, with ads that are also around those topics

YogeshSingh_4TLN4llOUM

Reyli if NTG do this all then nothing be like same brand , he need to do other . But I didn’t like that update in nothing phone it’s disappointed 😞

SelvakumarM

Akis This has been on every phone for years.

Anonymous963

Stereobasic

Very true.

There are also bandwidth overheads delivering this content/wallpapers. They aren’t doing it for free AND paying Nothing for the privilege

They’re clearly going to be harvesting data.

Nothing talks about privacy, but that’s if you don’t agree to the ToS…

Dev.

Akis

I need to address something that’s been bothering me about the “non-flagship” justification.

When I bought the Phone 3a, the product lineup was clear: CMF was the budget line, Nothing Phone was the main line. That’s how it was positioned, that’s how it was marketed, and that’s what I paid for.

I spent half of my monthly income on this phone - something I’ve never done for any purchase before. I stretched my budget specifically because Nothing Phone was supposed to be the “main line” with the clean OS experience you promised. Not budget, but compromise being better specs while maintaining actual Nothing experience.

Now you’re telling me that because you released a $799 Phone 3, my phone is retroactively classified as “non-flagship” and gets the degraded experience with ads and bloatware? You’re moving the goalposts AFTER I already made the purchase based on your original positioning.

That’s not just changing strategy - that’s a bait-and-switch. You can’t reclassify product tiers after people have already paid based on how you positioned them. When I bought this phone, it WAS your near best offering in its category.

If the plan was always to have “flagship gets clean OS, everything else gets ads,” that should have been disclosed at purchase time. Instead, you sold us on “Nothing Phone has clean OS” - full stop. No asterisks. No “unless we release something more expensive later.”

I made a significant financial sacrifice based on your promises. A lot of us did. And now you’re telling us that sacrifice wasn’t enough to qualify for the experience you promised? That we should have somehow predicted you’d release a more expensive model and retroactively demote what we bought?

This isn’t about not understanding business costs. This is about being sold one thing and receiving another after it’s too late to make a different choice.

iftekharSafi

Akis

Very wrong decision by nothing

So disappointing man

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 ?

BriauRoyston

Akis we dont want any third party shits !!

DipanshMoorjani

I think we have to understand one thing. There is a difference in bloatware and pre-installation of apps that you will inevitably download from PlayStore. What we have to understand is that the brand that we love and admire ultimately has to sustain in the market. The features that Nothing or CMF offers in the low to mid range category is second to none. Moreover, whatever integration of third party they are doing or whatever integration they might do only in some selected low to mid range category is actually not disturbing even one percent of the experience. For example Lock Glimpse will be turned off by default. If you want you can turn it on if not then nothing changes in your device.

I think a lot of us are getting too carried away. Nothing has always tried to offer best user experience right from Day 1 and believe you me they will continue to do it. Nothing will do nothing that hurts the sentiments of its community or user base.

CMF1_hacker

DipanshMoorjani I agree with this which is why I bought a CMF1 after seeing NOS. i was very disappointed in the camera at release but became satisfied after the NOS 3.0 final update.

I also think we’re only getting half the story from NOTHING. Semi-transparent.

I really want someone to post the T&Cs and to analyse the update with chatGPT5 and JADX to see what the revised libraries are doing after install.

Frankly, I’m shocked that no one here has done this and checked where their data goes with and without that option selected. Someone recently posted that NOTHING X communicates with baidu servers, which I never checked but was curious (so that’s where all my GPS/HR data is stored, I guess).

FOR ALL OF THE BELLYACHING ON THIS COMMUNITY, THE COMPLAINERS SURE ARE LAZY AND WONT EVEN POST THE T&C’S THEY AGREED TO OR DO ANY ANALYSIS OF THE CODE THEY INSTALLED.

It’s a schizophrenic community where people complain and want an iOS replica free of charge and then get some of that and complain the NTL is funding these changes with NOS bloatware/data selling. I guess they do really want something for nothing.

For me, I don’t really care about NTL’s fiscal manuoevering, but if I select “no,” I want confirmation that my data isn’t sent. NTL hasn’t explicitly said that and I have read that on other phones this is indeed the case. Itt been advertised as default-off/opt-in, but I haven’t had access to see what type of push during install is behind this.

I’m just angry that I don’t have a NP3a/NOS4beta to rigourously test this on and I doubt anyone where will do any tests to my satisfaction.

Dev.

DipanshMoorjani As I mentioned in my previous comments, it’s not about technical ability to turn off the lock screen glance or terminology difference between the words “pre-installed” or “bloatware”. It’s about Nothing as a company very aggressively marketed themselves as “no ads, no bloatware, clean os” alternative, which convinced people to buy a phone from a brand new company, then they retroactively manipulate the words and try to push ads and bargain with people about how it’s justified. if it’s hard to sustain in the market without ad revenue and the revenue that comes from “pre-installed” apps, why did they falsely advertise themselves as an alternative and scramble the words and bargain now? people are angry because they’re trying to work around the promises they previously made, which is ruining the trust that people have on the company and that’s the reason why people are angry.

Mr_RatsYT

mohd_khalidkhan_Vlz6d0c2Q1

There are cheaper phones out there that come with better features low price rag and a bit of a bloat.

I chose nofhing bcz it was supposed to be bloat free

GanGa

Anonymous903 my previous phone was phone 2,, before that,i had redmi note8pro, this feature was inbuilt in that phone…and trust me,,i never Turned On that option.

themountofmint

Oh, so many of you are complaining about the new feature… well.

Maybe anyone can give suggestions to Nothing then how could they provide the same price point and stay in the market at all? Let’s make a thread of a cool creative ideas to Nothing to earn from if you’re not happy with Lock Glimpse feature. Anyone’s complaining but not anyone even tried its own business in such complaining and competitive niche as smartphones were many giants already are going and fighting with each other for the buyer.

You’re literally complaining a very small brand (compared to others) that just can’t provide you a full support in every country, a fresh update FULL with different options like OnePlus and others, you still can’t go to the local offline store (unless you’re in London), you still can’t get proper retail support. You all just don’t realise how REALLY SMALL the team is.

Of course I’m not a fangirl at all, I believe that every brand has its pros and cons, but as a freelancer and a person that has friends and entrepreneurs with their own business I can understand what it means to launch even a local brand. What it means to find those who really could buy from you. It always requires to pay for an ad, for a proper marketer, designer, etc. I bet just a few of you really can understand what it means.

If you really want to support Nothing, if you really wish them stay bloatware-free, then maybe pay them for new product at least, idk. Let’s ask them for a monthly subscription sponsorship so we could have something unique from the team directly as a supporters. Do content maybe in socials.

I bought Nothing before watching their 2024-recap reel. I don’t have any local store where these phones could even be sold except a few retailers stores. I don’t have any repair centre and many of universal repair centres refuse to repair Nothing phones at all! But I still bought it knowing I couldn’t get any support just because I really loved the phone, the overall experience, the glyphs and etc… and then you, having at least a few options for a support are complaining…

It’s hard to believe that happens in a community.

AlexMrngstr69

themountofmint how about this one ?

Alternative

themountofmint

We are consumers. We buy products if they are good, and don’t if they are not.

It is our right to give opinions about what Nothing does to the products we own(and refuse them). It is not our job nor obligation to give ideas and care about Nothing. WE gave them OUR money, not the other way around. Why do we have to care about how they earn their money if they are the ones to add adware to our phones?

By this shrew move by them, we(most of us here) lost faith in their vision and minds. We couldn’t care less about how they earn money if it is through handling our private information, not by presenting great products and services.

I know some of you love Nothing much to the extent to defending them, but please think carefully about what is really right for us consumers. It’s the Nothing’s job to care for themselves.

Maggi Goreng

Alternative

True! OUR phones are paid with OUR own hard-earned money, not some charity handout from THEM. When I decided to buy a phone, no phone company ever helped me figure out how to earn the money to buy their phone.

themountofmint

We’re not just complaining for the sake of it — we’re customers who genuinely care about the brand. Giving feedback is a form of solution, because if no one speaks up, Nothing would never know where the real line is.

True loyalty isn’t about blind support. Nearly 90% of the people here believe this strategy is problematic; it’s clearly not just an isolated opinion😅

Amudhan_Sundararajan

themountofmint Hey, I can understand your perspective about a small brand. It’s tough, and nobody is arguing that Nothing doesn’t face enormous challenges. However, the complaints about features like Lock Glimpse aren’t just people being ungrateful… it’s a reaction to a broken promise and a serious value problem.

You mentioned that Nothing offers their phone at less price and how hard it is to stay in business. But we need to look at the economics here:

Manufacturing is in Asia: While their HQ in London is a great strategic move to build brand trust and bypass the “Chinese-only” skepticism in the West and India, the actual hardware is made in India. The cost of manufacturing, labor, and the supply chain is significantly cheaper than what you’d expect from a purely Western operation.
We Already Paid the Premium: We, the customers, have literally been paying a premium for the clean experience. When you look at the specs-to-price ratio—especially with the Phone (3) itself whivh is being marketed as a flagship.. you see clear compromises: a downgraded processor compared to rivals, slower memory types, and the baffling inclusion of a slow USB 2.0 port on a high-priced phone. When a flagship itself downgrades a lot, you can see understand the compromises they made for (a) series too. We accepted these downgraded specs and higher price because Nothing’s USP was the bloatware-free OS. That premium price was our subsidy for their “small team” and “clean vision.”

If Nothing starts packing in ad-serving features like Lock Glimpse, then what’s the point of choosing them? The minute they add ad-ware, they lose their only real differentiator. We bought the phone to avoid this kind of tracking and unnecessary content.
If Nothing is now just going to give us less specs for a higher price and add bloatware, we might as well buy another brand and use ADB to debloat it ourselves.

If they are struggling financially (which is unlikely given their statements about sales, but let’s assume it’s true):

Use CMF: That’s what their sub-brand is for! They can pack the budget-friendly CMF line with ads and bloatware and still justify it as it is offering a better price-to-specs ratio than the competition.
Respect the Tiers: The price difference between the Phone (3a) Pro and the Phone (3) flagship is only about $95. If they must monetize the mid-range, they could put Lock Glimpse on the base Phone (3a), but leave the expensive Phone (3a) Pro clean. People who paid an extra $80 for slightly more RAM and the periscope lens shouldn’t get ads.
Offer Useful Value: If they must pre-install, install useful apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video (which are necessary for HDR support) or the AI features like ChatGPT they already built widget for it might as well pre-install and make money outof it. They can also use Chatgpt instead of gemini flash for essential space, Customers can benefit from a better model, ChatGPT will get more training data and Nothing can profit from it too (just like apple). Generate revenue by enhancing the experience, not distracting from it.

The poor sales of the Phone (3).. if that’s the cause of this… are their own strategic mistake regarding pricing and specs. We shouldn’t have to suffer lock-screen ads because of it. It’s a disservice to the customers who specifically paid more for their minimalist promise.

themountofmint

AlexMrngstr69 exactly what I’ve suggested in another related thread. Yeah, this is a great idea that Apple provides, so why not use this genuine feature.

Alternative of course we’re all consumers that pay. I’m just saying as a person inside this kitchen. And yeah, I recognised this Glimpse is an ad only after watching tech content about it tbh, for real🤷🏼‍♀️ anyway now I guess they’re just trying first what’s came to the mind. The new lite model is also strange move from them, so for what does the CMF consist then? I do understand them and don’t understand at the same time. So I’m just using and watching what’s next. I got used to many Nothing’s things, that’s why I’m not gonna leave next few years definitely. Then time will show.

Maggi Goreng of course this move is strange compared to what did they say before with Phone (1). But as for me every company now does strange moves because everyone got bored. Nothing tries something to not get completely closed, seems👀 because they’re still small. This is why I gave a few ideas in another Glimpse-related thread and guess we need to create a thread of those suggestions for Nothing. Like someone maybe has a good idea to share. Why not sort them in one thread so the team could use these ideas in future. As a creative person I’d come up with more ideas, because my mind blows up from thoughts just like everyday and everyday I’m unloading all these thoughts from my mind.

Amudhan_Sundararajan let’s say, I chose Nothing because of Glyph Interface🤷🏼‍♀️ and only after getting it in hand I started watching its functions. I liked the overall design, I didn’t even know which apps are there, which from them are Nothing stock apps, I just heard it’s almost stock Android experience. As a (3a) user with beta I just turned that glimpse off because it didn’t fit my aesthetic. But sometimes when I turned it on I caught a few cool pictures.

Well, let’s say, I’ve read an interesting article on my native on how their economy stands rn. So they’re, I mean Nothing, literally living just because of “donations” of big companies and, as said in my native, “live in luxury” making many fancy stuff and acting like they’re already a premium brand. So that’s why they’re in minus, not even in a little plus🙃 as for me this really looks impractical at all, like they’re not spending stuff right. So I’d ask many questions at this point. I can send an article in private thread if you’d like to translate it and read.

Romeevan

Akis This is awful

Ambassador_Pineapple

Romeevan I agree, the rapid and intense devolution into AI slop and obnoxious bloatware is awful. Worse, it destroys any and all community trust they had built until this point. It may very well be over for Nothing if they can’t course-correct, and fast.

ShreekrishnaSNattoja

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