Google leaning strikingly towards what Nothing has been doing for the past 5 years.

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

The latest pixel glow leak of the pixel 11 and the create my widget thing scream a lot of nothing in them. Initially when nothing started doing this, adding glyphs to the back of their phones to make their usage more intentional and help from distraction while giving the brand a unique identity, people dismissed it as gimmicks. But now that we are seeing a major brand in the industry try to do the same thing with pixel glow, I think it speakes a lot about how nothing as a company has so many amazing aspects and ideas to look forward to, people who dismiss it don’t get the vision. I am just loving it how other brands are tapping into what nothing did 5 years ago and making it more mainstream.

Another part of that is the new gemini powered create my widget. This is more individual focused and has a more “ai” branding to it, unlike the essential apps or the widgets that our community has been making but it shares the same philosophy.

RudraGondhalekar

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih finally someone else also noticed this, the new google event is 60% nothing features EVEN THE GLYPHS in the google book

ChrisJ

Create my widget is exactly the same but for us we can share it with others , as soon as essential apps go live , out of beta , we have a feature to brag about that nothing had months ago

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

ChrisJ True lmao I can’t wait for that

grepGander

But now that we are seeing a major brand in the industry try to do the same thing with pixel glow,

2004-2010, almost every Symbian phone. such as the Nokia 3220 from 2004:

2011, Light Flow in Nexus One: https://androidcommunity.com/light-flow-led-control-the-perfect-app-for-galaxy-nexus-notifications-20111219/

2018, Samsung Edge Notifications: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10003383/

2019, LG Sidelight:

And so on… All of them before Nothing existed as a company.

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

grepGander did they ever make it mainstream? Or was their designs always commited to do this?

grepGander

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih Define the question, please. Samsung? Nokia? LG? Google?

Samsung, for example, had it in 2016 with their S7 Edge (and kept it later with other models, removed it in 2022 I think):

ChrisJ

grepGander all these implementeation except the symbian ones where done through software on main display rather than a seperate piece of hardware leds

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

grepGander That’s not the point man. Yes samsung and lg and nokia did it before, but they’re not doing it anymore. They never had these lights or glyphs as their main design language is what I’m trying to say. Also lg doesn’t make phones anymore, I don’t think there’s any phone on the market that looks alike a nothing phone And that’s what their objective was always with design. I was pissed that people were dismissing them as gimmicks and useless lights but now we see google also integrating these things into Android. I’m not against anything, innovation should find its way everywhere in the industry.

Also nobody really stuck with what they were doing with lights on their phone’s display or hardware. ITS A PART OF NOTHINGS PHILOSPOHY IS WHAT IM TRYING TO SAY.

grepGander

ChrisJ Pulse notification light? Nexus 5, 2013:

Always On Display later on, with OLEDs (since 2015).

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

They never had these lights or glyphs as their main design language is what I’m trying to say. Also lg doesn’t make phones anymore, I don’t think there’s any phone on the market that looks alike a nothing phone

Yep, that is correct, I agree. Only Asus is still left with their AniMe Matrix (Nothing calls it Glyph Matrix, in their implementation).

And that’s what their objective was always with design. I was pissed that people were dismissing them as gimmicks and useless lights but now we see google also integrating these things into Android. I’m not against anything, innovation should find its way everywhere in the industry.

100% agree with this. People call them gimmicks, and that’s fair. But both my girlfriend and I have the (3a) because of its excellent design, and those lights are incredibly useful once you get used to them 😃

grepGander

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih I’m not against anything, innovation should find its way everywhere in the industry.

I forgot to mention something, regarding this… While Nothing hasn’t innovated drastically in phones yet, that actually doesn’t matter much. It is about executing existing ideas well, about proper implementation of existing stuff. Some OEMs struggle with that, but then a few, like Nothing and Asus, excel.

If Google introduces something similar but still distinct, that will ultimately be good for everyone, because it gives others a foundation to build their custom solutions on. Right now, Nothing’s design team is clearly ahead of everyone, because their phones are visually attractive and also practical (form follows function). Many others (except Asus) fall short, and some even produce unbelievably hideous devices (because they try to blatantly copy Nothing) 😬

If anything, I’m quite excited to see what is Google on about. If they add something like a customisable RGB glow around that camera bar/bump at the back - that will be amazing.

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

grepGander yessir

SakshamSingh_NLrzDsZoih

nothingmore

grepGander yeah I agree. Its about proper implementation of the idea even if it’s not original

nothingmore

We’ll be getting the Android widgets before the Nothing ones (still in beta and accessible only to a select few) . Once again, Nothing has got it all wrong. Devices that are forgotten and sidelined, endless betas, marketing, and customers left to do the work for them.