Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Looking at the Nothing launcher for Android: Nothing new…”.
So less than two months ago, nothing announced that it would be releasing its first ever android smartphone sometime hopefully later this year. But until then the company has decided to release a beta version of its launcher on the google play store and that’s what we’re going to. Actually be taking a look at today, i’m harley moran from android authority, and in this article we are going to be diving into the nothing os launcher beta to see what makes it tick. Is it worth downloading to give it a shot for yourself? What does it say about the upcoming nothing phone one? I think this can be a fun one. So first things. First, we need to install the nothing launcher and, unfortunately, as of recording this video, the launcher is only compatible with a few number of devices and i’m gon na put those up on screen.
If you’re lucky enough to have one of those devices, then by all means you could just give this a go uh. If not, you can live vicariously through me. For the purposes of this video, i have got the samsung galaxy s22 ultra, which is currently running one ui, and let’s change that so we’re gon na go to the play store and, as you can see here, i’ve already got the nothing launcher beta popped up on Screen we’re gon na hit install there.
It should take no time at all actually scrolling down here. Oh, oh, okay! Well, that’s a little it’s a little concerning, but i guess we will judge for ourselves. So we’ve got it installed and in order to use the launcher, we got to go into our settings here, go into our default apps home app and, as you can see, the nothing launcher is now an option and bada bing bada boom oop. Okay change the wallpaper for me thanks for that, okay, right off the bat, i’m not the biggest fan of this wallpaper. If the nothing phone one came with this wallpaper, i change it immediately because to me this just looks like moire yeah, not a big fan of that right off the bat, but honestly first impressions go. I actually prefer this uh.
The circular icon shape to samsung’s kind of rectangular squares. I mean this looks. You know what this looks like i’ll tell you what this looks like this looks a lot like my buddy here, which is the google pixel 6 and the pixel launcher, which already uses spherical or circular icons, which you know was personally the right move. But that’s just my taste with the beta. There are a few widgets available for people to try out uh, and so i guess we could do that now. Just gon na hold down there go on to widgets.
Thank you for that uh! Okay! So we’ve got analog clock here, let’s just analog clock sure that looks that is: okay, cool next widget, okay, okay, oh okay! Let’S do it’s too transparent. Okay, see now that’s the problem on camera. It probably looks fine because of the lighting and it’s all flat, but when i’m looking at this in person, that’s kind of hard to read and if i’m just trying to look at quickly glance at my phone to see what time it is it’s going to be A little distracting um because you’ve got these vertical lines and obviously again, if you change wallpaper fine, but as a default, not really it’s strongest, it really does line up with uh. I almost said oneplus. It really lines up with nothing’s topography uh in the font selection. For a lot of their branding and the products same font same everything so yeah, i guess it’s continuity with the brand style, not sure if i’m the biggest fan of it, but whatever then they’ve got one more widget here.
Let’S just take a look at that. Can i see? Okay? Okay, i mean that’s pretty cool that i i actually am a fan of, if you’re really into the nothing aesthetic of kind of these, pic like these intentionally large pixels yeah. That actually looks pretty cool. You know what this actually just reminded me of the essential phone huh good thing that worked out um, see if they include any more wallpapers, you can hold down their wallpaper and style.
Okay, that’s yeah, and there we go. Oh, this is nothing implementing their font selection. Again to keep in line with their products again, if you like that style power to you, i just i’m, not one of them. App icon is this. It is this, it is it well, let’s see, let’s see what else, what else is nothing touting with the beta of their launcher? Okay, so we’ve got bespoke weather and clock widgets done scene already great cool, enlarge your favorite app icons and folders hold on.
They might be onto something here: we’re gon na drag this we’re gon na make a folder – okay – maybe, let’s just add chrome for lulls, then no wow. I mean okay, sure that just give me a second here. I wouldn’t call that a revolutionary feature but cool. If you don’t have enough apps to fill a home screen, but you want to feel like it, what else does what else does the thing say, unique, fonts and visuals, unique, fonts and visuals just i’ll give him i’ll give him credit for the fonts. You know for the system, menu and stuff like wallpaper and style. It’S not very unique. Okay. What else? What else do we got? Okay, unique spongebob! That’S it! That’S it! That’S it! Okay, okay! So after some research, apparently you can also download nothing’s a selection of ringtones and wallpapers. That’S a good we’re on to something.
Maybe they could revolutionize the ringtone market. Nothing alarm, one: okay, sure, okay, notification, sound what why did it sounds like they had a day to make up all these sounds and someone just got their drumsticks and went same thing right. You just heard it same thing: wallpapers, let’s see if there’s an improvement on uh vertical venetian, blinds here; okay, so, okay, dog, i mean that’s pretty cool, i mean okay, i don’t that’s, not bad shooting like filming a dog through one of those distorted windows. Okay, behind that face okay, okay hand.
Is that not the same? Oh okay? No! I did not think that was a hand hold up. How do i can i move the icon? Okay, okay, now now that you tell me now that you tell me it does look like a hand. No now i don’t like the wallpaper even more, i don’t get why i’d choose this launcher over something like my one, ui launcher with my s22 ultra or my pixel launcher with the pixel 6 and 6 pro when you’re, when your big selling point on the play Store is that you can enlarge icons that you’re really. It really sounds like you’re you’re, scraping the bottle of the barrel for something sellable there. It’S it’s nice to get a glimpse of what nothing might have up its sleeves in terms of its attention to detail or design, but there’s a lot a lot of design elements or just useful software elements that make the nothing launcher worth your time right now. Obviously, what we’re looking at right now is the beta, and they have many more improvements they can be making.
But how much more are they going to add or improve, and why give us this bad taste in our mouth before the enough before the product is actually released? It’S a lot of over hyping and it’s scary because i genuinely want to see nothing bring something to the table. But what do you guys think? Have you downloaded the nothing launcher? Do you love it? Do you hate it you’re going to keep it you’re going to stay away from it? Let me know down in the comments below and while you’re down there make sure to like this video. If you want more content from us, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and hit the bell icon to be notified when we upload next and be sure to visit us at androidauthority.com for more smartphone related content, i’m harley, moranin and i’ll see you in the next Article .