The best Nothing OS 2.5 features on the Nothing Phone 2

Publicity stunts like the Nothing Chats drama aren’t a assured success each single time, however I nonetheless really feel like Nothing’s and Carl Pei’s shenanigans shouldn’t stand in the means of their — surprisingly — glorious merchandise. I’ve been a fan of the Ear 1 and Ear 2 for a few years and I lastly managed to get my arms on the Nothing Phone 2 ($559 at Amazon). I didn’t anticipate to be as impressed by the telephone and Nothing OS as I’m, nor did I anticipate Nothing OS 2.5 to push issues even additional. But the newest software program actually takes Nothing’s expertise to a different degree. Here are my favourite Nothing OS 2.5 features.

How can I get Nothing OS 2.5?

Nothing OS 2.5 builds on all the things we’ve seen with Nothing OS 2.0 and Android 14, nevertheless it’s nonetheless at the moment in beta. Nothing is testing it publicly on the Phone 2. You can be a part of the beta by following the steps beneath or on Nothing’s group discussion board:

1. Ensure you will have the newest steady Nothing OS working on your telephone.
2. Download this APK offered by Nothing and set up it.
3. Go to Settings > System > Update to Beta model
4. Tap Check for brand spanking new model and observe the steps to obtain and set up the beta firmware.

Nothing OS 2.5 provides a brand new hidden app shelf to the left of your app drawer. Just swipe proper and also you’ll reveal the new hidden area the place you possibly can tuck away apps you not often use, these you need to obfuscate from individuals who would possibly seize your telephone, or, in my case, apps with unthemed icons.

I’m a monochrome theme convert and I simply don’t need to see colourful icons spoiling the greyscale aesthetic I’ve obtained going with the telephone. So I’ve determined to cover the unthemed app icons away from view. It helps that these aren’t apps I take advantage of on daily basis.

So the Phone 2 doesn’t have an additional button to behave like the iPhone 15’s Action Button, however Nothing did the closest factor by permitting you to customise the double-tap gesture on the energy button. By default, most Android telephones allow you to open the digital camera with this shortcut, and that was the case on the Phone 2. Now you possibly can simply assign it to any app on your telephone, the Glyph timer, torch, QR code scanner, allow Do Not Disturb, or mute your telephone.

I preserve hopping between totally different choices, however I believe I’ve lastly settled on the video digital camera. Since I really like taking random movies, this protects me from opening the digital camera after which switching to the video mode earlier than beginning to shoot.

I believe the Glyph lights on the again of the Phone 2 could be far more helpful than they at the moment are. Integrations with third-party apps aren’t straightforward, although, so we get a couple of cool use circumstances from time to time. Nothing OS 2.5 brings two cool enhancements. Glyph timers are a lot simpler to make use of now and help timer presets, whereas Glyph progress has added Google Calendar compatibility.

The latter is useful once I’m approaching conferences or occasions. The Nothing Phone 2 lights up about 5 minutes earlier than to remind me that I have to prepare. Enough leeway to leap into the rest room, fill my water bottle, or pause my present process at a logical juncture level.

A correct greyscale theme made its technique to Android 14’s Material homescreen customizations and, by extension, to Nothing OS 2.5. Now, once I need to take the monochrome method to the max, I can go to the residence display screen choices and choose the first greyscale choice beneath Basic colours.

This turns the complete interface into correct greyscale, with none hints of blue’ish, inexperienced’ish, yellow’ish, or some other colour shades. The notification drop-down follows go well with, and so does each app that has adopted Material You colours like the Google Calculator, Calendar, Photos, Contacts, Keep, and extra.

Granted, this isn’t an aesthetic I would like on daily basis, however once I do, I’d fairly have one thing uniform, and this new theme colour suits Nothing OS 2.5 and the Nothing icon pack to perfection.

Speaking of the Nothing aesthetic, the new wallpaper glass filter is sort of cool. It lets me emulate the look of a few of Nothing’s default wallpapers with my very own photos. Just choose a wallpaper (my favourite app and the one I obtained all these wallpapers from is Backdrops) and faucet the glowing button on the backside and ta-da! Glass impact. It can flip some common wallpapers intro intriguing designs, like peering by glass at a lovely scene.

Nothing made an fascinating addition in OS 2.5: A regional settings menu enables you to choose the default temperature and first day of the week. As somebody who units their telephone to US English, however makes use of metric models and considers Monday the first day of the week, this protects me from digging into random app settings to alter the defaults. It’s not suitable with all third-party apps, although.

It’s additionally simpler to identify Nothing’s personal themed widgets amongst all the different widgets accessible so as to add. A brand new Photos widget is accessible too. And lock display screen widget choices have been expanded with a QR code scanner and Do Not Disturb — two features I personally use lots and instantly assigned to my very own lock display screen.

Volume controls for ringing and notifications are separate now too. Plus, there’s a brand new gesture that captures screenshots if you swipe down with three fingers, whereas the screenshot editor itself has seen enhancements. Among them is a pixelated impact that lets me draw on prime of any private information earlier than sharing the screenshot.

Other minor additions embrace a brand new again gesture arrow design, solid-color wallpapers, and a brand new Glyph animation for NFC.

Nothing OS is slowly changing into a modern and highly effective Android pores and skin, with all of the simplicity of inventory Android and a few neat extras that elevate the expertise. I’m beginning to admire its quirky design language and affinity for dot-matrix fonts and icons; they give the impression of being a lot better in particular person than in screenshots and images. Plus, they tie properly along with the Phone 2’s {hardware} design.

I’d nonetheless like to see extra customization and features to make the most of the Glyphs, however after placing software program on the backseat for a yr with the Phone 1, Nothing is lastly giving software program the focus it deserves. Nothing OS 2 was a very good step ahead; 2.5 is even higher.