What to know
- Keeping up with the competition, now Nothing has thrown in their hat into the consumer AI race.
- The company is now looking to integrate AI system-wide into Nothing Phone 3!
- Nothing’s Home screen prototype gives a peek into a post-app world where system AI will just know what you want without ever bringing the app experience into play.
In a recent video post, Nothing CEO Carl Pei took to X (formerly Twitter) to talk about some major news and developments that the company has in store for us.
Being in the smartphone business, Nothing, like many popular companies, needs to have a dog in the AI race to stay relevant in the years to come. And from the looks of it, it appears they are gearing up to bring seismic changes to the basic app-based experience of smartphones.
According to Pei, the AI rage is not dying anytime soon and the smartphone will be the main form factor for AI-first hardware. With those things in mind, Nothing wants to make some fundamental changes to the smartphone experience.
There's been a lot of hype around AI. Some great, some confusing. It’s great to see new companies rethinking the user experience and form factors. However, there is no doubt that smartphones will remain the main consumer AI form factor for the foreseeable future. With over 4… pic.twitter.com/ERJc7xhwBa
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) June 5, 2024
With the implementation of AI at the system level, the Nothing team showed off a prototype in the making that will, apparently, ditch the app-centric model for a broader, more complete AI phone that just knows what you need.
While Pei is the first to acknowledge that if such a phone came out in the current market “of course they’re not going to buy it” because people love the app experience too much, the idea is still to build something that will ultimately lead to a post-app experience.
Cue Nothing Phone 3 whose existence – hitherto only a rumor – was most casually mentioned in the video. On the next Nothing Phone, the company is working hard to reimagine the Home screen as a “hub for contextual, relevant information”, moving away from it being just a space to launch apps and services.
The first look of the dynamic Home screen appears a mashup of widgets, news feeds, and the app launcher. Apparently, the personalized page will show most things relevant to you which you can expand for more options. But being only a prototype, the final design could be vastly different from what’s shown here.
Nothing also showed a ChatGPT-like voice mode built into the system, which appears to be what every device manufacturer is looking to do. This could perhaps be what the the new button on Nothing Phone 3 is all about.
It’s not the first time that AI will be integrated into Nothing devices. ChatGPT is already deeply integrated into Nothing phones and earbuds. Carl Pei expects Nothing to do for the smartphones what Nintendo did for gaming, that is, to give users the best experience possible without having to compete with behemoths like Apple and Google on technology.
Nothing 3 is now well-poised to be Nothing’s first AI phone, regardless of when it arrives.
If Nothing sticks to its yearly July launch, the Nothing Phone 3 could arrive as soon as next month. But with such ambitious plans in the making, it won’t be surprising to see it delayed a few months. We’ll keep you updated about Nothing’s plans going forward as and when they’re made public. Until next time!
