With the new design of Nothing OS 5.0, app icons and widgets can use adaptive color to get color tints pulled from your wallpaper, which update whenever your wallpaper changes. Alongside Android’s built-in Dynamic Colors, the company says it allows you to have specific elements change to match your wallpaper “while Nothing’s predominantly monochrome character stays underneath.”
While I like Nothing’s simplified, monochrome app icons, it’s nice to get an option for adding some limited areas of color to the homescreen. Nothing’s launching it as “an additional theme,” so you can keep using the old design if you like.
The Android 17-based update is launching in open beta on August 26th, starting with the Nothing Phone 3. It will eventually also roll out to most of Nothing’s other phones, but a few older devices aren’t getting this update, including the Phone 1, Phone 2, and CMF Phone 1 — the last of which I’ve been using, so unfortunately I won’t get to try out these new features myself.
[Image: Most Nothing phones will get the update by January 2027. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/nothing-os-5-rollout-chart.png?quality=90&strip=all]
The latest version of Nothing OS also adds a slew of new homescreen customization options and quality-of-life tweaks that will let you track how long you spend away from your phone, or make better use of its Essential AI features. And if you have a Nothing phone with its glyph interface lighting, a new dedicated app pulls all the features and controls into one spot.
[Image: You can control Nothing’s glyph lights from a dedicated app now. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/nothing-phone-4a-pro-launch-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all]
Lockscreen clockfaces can also use colors from your wallpaper now. There are also a couple of new lockscreen clockfaces in Nothing OS 5.0, including a bubbly “Gooey” design and an information-dense “Micrographics” one.
Since Nothing OS 5.0 is built on Android 17, it also includes platform updates like enhanced quick share, Android’s new Noto 3D emojis, and expanded dark theme support. Other new highlights include:
* “Geist” system typeface
* Away Time widget that tracks how long you haven’t been using your phone, and Collector widget that turns pictures of items into home or lock screen icons
* Select multiple homescreen app icons to move them all at once
* Status bar icons with animations to signify things like turning airplane mode on or off
* Single-tap Bluetooth controls in Quick Settings
* Essential AI updates including support for Model Context Protocol (MCP), cleaner transcriptions from Essential Voice, a Smart Collections feature for organizing Essential Space captures, and support for building Essential Apps on-device
منبع: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/984430/nothing-os-5-launch-android-17
