Nothing built its entire brand on a simple and powerful promise – a clean, bloatware-free Android experience. CEO Carl Pei championed this "pure" vision to attract enthusiasts who were tired of user interfaces riddled by ads. Well, Nothing just broke that core promise by introducing Lock Glimpse and saying it will soon preload third-party apps in Nothing OS.
Nothing's no Bloatware promise aged like Milk
With the release of Nothing OS 4.0 beta for Phone (3a) series, the brand has quietly introduced Lock Glimpse. It's a feature that's found in many budget smartphones from manufacturers like Xiaomi, Realme and more, and introduced a lock screen wallpaper carousel, notorious for pushing "personalised content".
That's just a polite term for Ads. It is worse than Bloatware, which the brand will also be adding soon. It's the very type of software experience Nothing implicitly swore it would never use. To top it off, the feature is created by a Hong Kong-based firm, called Boyuan, which raises user-data questions that Nothing's transparent brand was supposed to avoid.
Nothing's co-founder, Akis Evangelidis, responded in a community post about the new "feature" with a familiar excuse of high Bill of Materials cost and the need for "sustainable revenue models" for non-flagship devices.
Speaking of Bloatware, although Akis did say that the preloaded apps will be those that most users install anyway and will integrate tightly with Nothing OS. He said, and we quote:
...we’ll start including a carefully considered selection of third-party partner apps and services that don’t disrupt the Nothing OS experience you love. These are apps most people install on day one, like Instagram. We’re working with popular platforms many of you already use daily, and in some cases, these integrations can even enhance performance or provide tighter experiences, such as improved camera or sharing features.
— Akis Evangelidis, Co-founder at Nothing
This statement suggests that Nothing will be exploring more ways to add third-party apps and services, so there's no bar or safe limit on where the brand will stop. While the brand does say it will add a carefully considered selection of apps that don't disrupt the experience, the fact remains that it goes against the firm's initial promise of steering clear of bloatware.
To Nothing's credit, though, the Lock Glimpse feature is disabled by default. If you do enable it when exploring all the new Nothing OS 4.0 features, you can easily disable Lock Glimpse on Nothing phones. For those unaware, it also gives users the option to choose their preferences and it's all wrapped into a very clean and minimal UI.
As for the bloatware, Nothing did say they will keep the partner apps minimal and easy to remove, be upfront about what's pre-installed, why so and give users full control over features like Lock Glimpse.
Beebom Gadget's Take
The defence from Nothing is a tough pill to swallow for early adopters like me. Nothing wasn't supposed to be like other brands. It was supposed to be the antidote to them. Therefore, by resorting to the same justifications for pre-installed services and apps, I see it as a dent in the brand's foundational promise.
And I don't want to completely dismiss these concerns, because they could be very real issues the firm is dealing with. The end goal is to maximise the capital, but doing so by pushing it on to the community that bought into the "no bloatware" dream is not a good practice.
Well, Nothing OS 4.0 for Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro is still in Beta, and the brand says it's open to hearing feedback on these features. However, it looks like this move swung into action after careful planning, so a pushback from the community likely won't do much. We're hopeful, nonetheless.
