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if you think no ears (1) Marketing campaigns are annoying, then you won’t be able to use the Nothing phone(1).
Most companies were silent for months or weeks after the launch, and then things “accidentally” started leaking.
Not nothing, they’ll be sending out weekly news months in advance, revealing the smallest tidbits about the upcoming phone.
The first is the launch of Nothing Launcher (Beta). This should give us a taste of Nothing OS.
Nothing Launcher (Beta) gives Android users a preview of the operating system’s unified design language and features: largest icons and largest folders, custom clock and weather widgets, and no wallpapers and styles.
Sounds impressive. In fact, it feels like a clone of the Pixel launcher with features removed.
Phones compatible with Nothing Launcher (beta)
There are currently a handful of phones that can run Nothing Launcher (Beta):
- Samsung Galaxy S21 series
- Samsung Galaxy S22 series
- Google Pixel 5/5a
- Pixel 6 / 6 Pro
Ironically, Carl Pei’s former company, OnePlus, doesn’t support it yet, but it’s coming.
How to Install Nothing Launcher (Beta) on Pixel 6
I’ve been using the standard pixel launcher since I got mine pixel 6, and it’s not immediately obvious how to switch the launcher. With gestures, there’s no home button that would normally bring up the home launcher selection.
Unlike Nova, there is no app or anything in your draw, and when you install it, you can click open from the Play Store.
However, this is easy to do:
feature
The standout feature of Nothing Launcher is its lack of functionality. However, it is beta software. It doesn’t feel like a lot of work is being done here. It’s basically just the stock/pixel launcher with some minor tweaks and a bunch of stuff removed. If it weren’t for the wallpaper change, you might think the launcher hasn’t changed at all.
It feels snappy, easy to use, and I didn’t find it faulty, which is probably the launcher’s most important feature.
You only have three custom widgets. Analog and digital time, then a weather widget. These have Nothing style brands. At first, I thought I was impressed with the speed at which the widgets were found, but then I realized that the widgets menu is basically the same as the Pixel launcher.
The only other feature I can think of is the ability to resize the app icon. Long pressing on the icon brings up additional options, and you can click to expand the icon size to quadruple its size. It looks a bit silly to me, but it might work for those struggling with small icons.
You can also zoom in on folders. I can see more uses for this. The first three apps you add can be launched by clicking on them directly. The bottom left corner of the folder then groups all the other apps, and when you click on it, it opens the full app folder. For me, I have a smart home folder, but there are probably 2 or 3 main applications in this folder that I use a lot. This will provide faster access. Of course, on the normal launcher, I can put the three apps outside the folder, so it’s not much of a difference.
There is a serious lack of setup and customization in Home Setup. Again, this could just be because it’s beta software. Nova has the opposite problem, I think there may be too many settings, although I do like to tweak some things.
Currently, there is no Google Now integration.
Finally, the app drawer is the same as the Pixel. That’s not a bad thing, it’s simple and it works.
overall
I think I’m basically indifferent to launchers in general. I’ve used so many phones that it doesn’t make much difference if I use Android 12 on a Pixel, OxygenOS, ColorOS, MIUI, or whatever.I even found Red Devils 5.0 Tolerable, unlike many users.
So I don’t have a particularly strong feeling for Nothing Launcher. It feels snappy, and the overall user experience isn’t that different from the Pixel launcher, which I think is a good thing, but there’s little innovation.
The only problem I have is the weird UI for removing widgets and accessing their settings; the icons are barely readable. It’s pretty much the same as the Pixel 6 UI, but worse in a way. I think it’s just that dark blue text with no wallpaper.
Not much else happens. The option to increase the app icon size is a bit pointless to me; it might help from a usability standpoint, though.
These three Nothing Launcher widgets are mostly unforgettable to me. It’s just time and weather with some unbranded. I want a full width widget with time and weather.
I might think I’m being too harsh, but it looks like the Play Store reviews agree with me, and Reddit doesn’t seem to be particularly impressed.
This is of course beta software and it will be much improved before the Nothing phone (1) launches.
