When Nothing pushed out Nothing OS 4.0 last year, it was regarded by many as an underwhelming Android 16-based UI release due to the lack of features. Fast forward to 2026, and Nothing has released Nothing OS 4.1 via the Nothing Phone (4a) series. While the update is not over the top in terms of design or UI changes, it still brings a handful of new features and improvements. Here are the all the new Nothing OS 4.1 features you should try out on your Nothing phone.
Nothing OS 4.1 vs Nothing OS 4.0: What Has Changed?
The short answer is, not much. The Nothing OS 4.1 update brings a few new features, but it isn't inherently a massive update. It expands the existing Nothing OS 4.0 features like lock screen customisations and AI features, but most of the core user interface and usability remain nearly identical to Nothing OS 4.0.
Is it worth upgrading to Nothing OS 4.1? Absolutely. While not a substantial update, the feature expansions and quality of life changes will slightly enhance your experience in terms of customisations and general usability.
Nothing OS 4.1 Features
Now to the meat of this guide, here are all the Nothing OS 4.1 features that will soon roll out to all the eligible smartphones.
More Customisations
Starting with personalisation, Nothing OS 4.1 now gives you greater control over how your phone's lock screen looks and feels. The numbers of the clock can now dynamically hide behind the foreground subjects of your wallpaper to create a 3D depth effect.
You can now change the lock screen clock size, including its alignment. There's also a new lock screen clock style. When swiping up to enter the device passcode, the screen now has an adaptive blur effect over the wallpaper. Speaking of which, while not exactly related to customisations, Nothing has made slight changes to the status bar.
Previously, with dual-SIM cards, the signal bars used to appear side by side, unnecessarily consuming space. However, Nothing has been tweaked to make them appear below one another to conserve space. Besides, there's a new status bar icon which appears when you connect Nothing headphones/earbuds, which looks pretty cool.
New Widgets
Nothing OS has been all about widgets since its inception, and it's only normal that the new release adds new widgets to the mix. This time, the focus (pun intended) seems to be on the user's mental health with new Breathing break widgets.
There are three new widgets that can be added to the home screen. Tapping on them will start a timer asking you to perform inhaling and exhaling exercises for peace of mind.
AI Eraser and Custom Ringtones
This cannot be a 2026 release without the mention of AI features. After adding a host of new features in Nothing Gallery last year, Nothing OS 4.1 brings the long-awaited AI eraser feature in the native Nothing Gallery app. It processes images locally to instantly remove photobombers or unwanted objects from your images, without an active internet connection.
Besides, the update also introduces ringtone generation, allowing you to use AI to craft custom notification sounds for individual contacts. This could help you figure out who's calling you without even looking at the screen.
Live Updates integration
One of the best Android 16 features, Live Updates, is expanding to Nothing phones via Nothing OS 4.1. The release now seamlessly handles real-time activities directly on your screen. Live updates can appear as persistent notifications in the notification shade, on your lock screen and on the Always-on display.
Important ongoing alerts, such as an incoming ride from Uber, active timers, food orders from Zomato and Google Maps, will all show a dedicated layout in the status bar, which makes tracking them much easier.
Glyph Interface Additions and Camera Enhancements
These real-time updates are also synced to the back of the phone, allowing you to track progress via the Glyph Bar or Glyph lights without needing to turn on your screen. As for the changes in cameras, Nothing has now added a new Cricket preset, which shows a Nothing x RCB watermark, as the brand is now the title sponsor of the team.
Besides, the update also adds support for Playground Sync, letting you import photo presets from Nothing Playground in just a few clicks. Nothing OS 4.1 also adds a new power-saving recording feature, which automatically dims the screen during video recording to save battery life. Lastly, there are general exposure enhancement, HDR processing and colour accuracy fixes.
And those are all the new features and changes in Nothing OS 4.1. To reiterate, it's currently available on the Nothing Phone (4a) and Phone (4a) Pro. The update will soon roll out to all the supported Nothing smartphones, so stay tuned.
-356w.webp "Oppo A6s 5G front and back in Plum Purple")
