All 65 answers from Carl Pei’s AMA

Could you consider removing the semi-forced app installs? I mean, with 4.0 version it forcefully installed some apps and tried to install some other (games). I didn’t buy the phone for this.

Hi Carl, I'm interested to know about what your background is with respect to design? When did you really start to notice how things like UI and tech design influence your world, and what inspires you?

If phones disappear in the next decade, what do you think will replace them and what would you want Nothing to design for the future? I'm talking about phones as personal devices.

Make a compact flagship asap. Someone needs to save this market please.

Hey Carl,  just wanted to say thanks for the brilliant experience i have had on Phone 2 for the past 3 years, has run flawlessly both from hardware and software perspective and surpassed all my expectations. Have been a long time follower since OnePlus 3 days and looking forward to the next Nothing flagship phone.

What's your plan to survive RAMageddon (shortage till 2030 at least)?

Besides the RAM Pricing issues this year. What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of this past year and how has this helped to bolster Nothing for the future?

I’ve stuck with my OnePlus 7T for 6 years and now need to upgrade. Coming from that background, what Nothing phone would you recommend, and what’s one piece of entrepreneurial advice you’d give someone who’s been loyal to a product/company for a long time and is finally making a big change?

Why move away from features that made the phones iconic? They look more generic and cost more, with nothing significant to differenciate from other brands. I bought phone (1) because of glyphs and opted for phone (3a) to still have some of it, over a newer model.

Why do you have firmware updates for nothing cmf buds that severely degrade features like ANC yet your support fail to acknowledge the issue? There's a lot of threads about this.

You were praised for your ANC upon initial reviews but now people are cautious of your product since features get broken. I can't recommend nothing buds to friends in good conscience.

Nothing is no longer manufacturing 3a/3a pro. Is this the reason why there is an attempt to port only subset of features from new os on these phones to upsell 4a series? Isn't it being dishonest with 3a owners who were promised 3yr os support?

Why won't you include an IR blaster? It's literally the one thing stopping me from considering a nothing phone in the future.

Nothing phone 3 and the display issues.

Carl pei my man, I have nothing but love for you.

The issue I want to bring up is the green tint and black screen crush issue on the phone 3. Why was there a bad batch of displays for a flagship experience?

Should the users wait for an update to get all this fixed or are we supposed to get the entire display changed?

Please address this issue as this has been an ongoing problem since a very long time.

Lots of love, Dr YBA

Why the nothing 4a pro price is hiked , like from the release date price to present price ?

What are your hobbies?

Hello, Mr. Pei,

When will we get a transparent Nothing Watch One?

Any hint on what "Lanturn" is 😏

Hi, Carl. Nice to see you up here. Coming from Samsung, a lot feels missing. Especially the Goodlock suite of apps. Any chance we get to some amazing customization options inspired by Goodlock. I think that is very close to your idealogy of opensource, kinda customized to oneself.

Hi I'm A frequent traveler to Japan and the one thing that I wish I saw on more Androids that are sold outside of Japan is FeliCa technology. How hard would that be as a phone manufacturer?

The MCP support in 5.0 looks nice, but it would be nicer if we could BYOK on the essential space, as well as some revamping on the essential space. Limits being higher, even as a paid option would be nice. I would like to see more focus put on promoting it and improving it. I think it gets a lot of shit because people don't seem to understand that the benefit to it only comes with usage over time. They're often times expecting instant results.
So it would be cool if you could add some predefined prompts and finetuned aspects to it that will have an immediate impact. We unfortunately live in a society where people want instant results or nothing at all. So that kind of puts the essential space in an awkward place.

Maybe it would help to have a brand recognition pattern in design, like the big brands, and keep iterating it so you can actually focus on delivering stable and polished software (which you already have a recognizable one)? What do you think?

Have you ever thought of bringing back "Spin and Win" and "Lucky Draw" at Nothing, like the kinds of things OnePlus used to have during launch events?

Hi Carl my Nothing Phone 1 has problems and is almost dead, I got a Nothing 3 from the London store to replace it recently. If I wanted to recycle the nothing phone 1 when it's stopped working, can I return that to the store?

Essential Search and Shared Widgets both started off as promising ideas, but Essential Search’s last update was in January, while Shared Widgets haven’t received any meaningful updates. Do you still see a future for these concepts?

As the CEO of a major smartphone company, if you could own either the Samsung s26 ultra or the Iphone 17 pro max, two of the biggest flagship phones in the market right now, which one would you pick and why?

We need more editing features in the gallery app,

was there an old carpe01 account? did you lose the account xD

Hey Carl, I was a Nothing early adopter (pre-ordered the Phone(1), got the NFT too). I was a big fan of Nothing, Phone(1) was literally the first thing I bought for myself with my first stipend. The phone had such a personality with all the Glyphs and Sounds. I even had a ear (1) die on me.
I was eagerly waiting for Phone (3) as my upgrade but was disappointed by it so made the switch to Samsung. I wanted to ask you where has the soul of Nothing gone ?

I feel you guys are drifting towards being the same companies you started out against.

I still miss my Phone (1), it was the best phone I ever owned, thank you for that.

Why did the company stray away from using the whole back of the phone for gylphs to only using a small part? The Nothing Phone 2 was in my opinion the most beautiful phone of its time, now almost all your models look alike
Is there a chance for the design language of NP1,2 to make a return?

When are you gonna give more love to the glyph? Like having an oficial app that you can draw the glyphs to use on certain contacts

- why price for 4a expensive compare to 3a pro and more expensive than 3a?

- does ufs 3.1 and periscope telephoto really that expensive in making?
- in malaysia nothing 3a (rm1499) vs 4a price (roughly rm2000), should i expect 5a starting price like 4a pro (roughly rm2400)? i really want to try nothing but it's already september might as well wait for 5 series in 6 month from now on

- should i expect gylph led to comeback?

Hey Carl, I love Nothing and wanted to be a Product Manager there, but I'm based in Portugal.
Are you ever thinking on expanding to other EU markets and expanding the teams?

And, is there some hope in the future for Smartwatches apart from the CMF?

Hi Carl! We're currently living in a very AI focused age across all parts of our life, and it's definitely influencing how we interact with tech today.

What do you see the next evolution of this to look like in the upcoming years, and how might we see this evolve throughout Nothing?

Are we getting phone 3a restocked and when do you think the phone prices gets to normal and how is the industry adapting to these rapid changes (ram prices increase).

Hey Mr. Carl, what do you think of this?

are you looking to build an ecosystem like Samsung has? I'm a bit tired of samsung bs but the ecosystem is really good when you own 3/4 their products.

Hey Carl, I'm denovait, a Starter Tech Content Creator. I have a few questions for you!

• Where/when can we expect the next official Nothing Store?

• Where do you see Nothing in 5 years?
• The Phone (3) split opinions online due to its price point and controversial design choices like the camera layout. Given current market pressures (rising RAM/component costs), the next flagship risks being even more expensive. ​Are you doubled down on pushing Nothing into the premium flagship tier, or do you see the brand shifting focus back to dominant mid-range/budget space?

Thank you, for connecting with the community!

How did you and your company get so good at Marketing? I legitimately watch every reel, tiktoc, youtube video you guys have made since the Phone(1) was announced and have owned all 3 of the main flagship phones. The alure of your company is fantastic and I find the aesthetic refreshing!

how bad is RAMagodden affecting the company?

Hi Carl,

Long time fan. Investor in your company. Owner of a few of your products.

I've been a bit surprised to the degree Nothing has diversified its product line so quickly. Do you still think it was the right move, to enter all these product categories, new lines etc?

All the best, Jesper

The Glyph began as Nothing’s signature visual identity, but its hardware role has shifted a lot over time. As designs evolve toward things like dot-matrix displays, what is the core vision for the Glyph moving forward: is Nothing pushing for deeper third-party app integration (like real-time tracking for Zomato, Swiggy, or Google Calendar), or is the goal to keep it primarily an ambient notification tool?

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Android supports multiple bluetooth connection, but NothingOS doesn't (ie play music through 2 BT devices simultaneously). There appeared to be an experimental feature for this at one time, but it's no longer accessible. Considering Nothing's focus on good audio equipment with the Headphone 1 and Ear, is there any consideration to add this functionality?

Waffles or pancakes?

Carl, do you prefer cats or dogs?

For eg: 4, 4a, 4a pro, 4b... These make sense, just don't release a lite version, instead you may use 4c... The letter way is better...

Then there's another way, don't use pro anymore... Just letters - 4, 4a, 4b, 4c etc

Same issue with Nothing Phone 3a and CMF Phone 2 Pro

Could we possibly get it for 3a and 4a as well?

With such a large amount of iPhone users in the US, do you have any plans to incentivize/help them to make the switch? Samsung has an app that helps streamline the process, are there plans of creating something like this, or a guide of sorts? Would love to see Nothing expand in the US market.

Hello Carl, i must say i really love the phone 3 i just got.

One of the selling points was your response to phone reviewer's.

I would like to ask you, how come you decided to do that, since most of the ceo's dont bother with explaining their design decisions?

Extra question: i have a podcast (general subjects), would you respond to an invite? :)

Hi, you've mentioned before about moving toward a personalized, AI-based OS instead of the usual app grid.

Is a Nothing laptop actually on the roadmap at all? Just curious if the goal is to eventually bring that custom OS idea to laptops, or if you're sticking purely to phones for now. Thanks

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Will we see another CMF phone? Or with the memory price increases is this going to be on hold for a while.
Are you planning to start using larger batteries? We're now seeing midrange phones with up to 10,000mAh being announced, and my last purchase was influenced by this, I looked at the current Nothing range and ended up buying something else with a 6500mAh battery.

Hey Carl, it's Spike here! Just wanted to check in and see if you've had a chance to check out the Nothing Archive project yet? I'd love to hear your thoughts 😄

https://nothingarchive.tech

Have a great day!

Hey Carl, glad to see you doing an AMA here! It’s always great to see you in the subreddit.

I’ve got a few questions, so feel free to answer whichever ones you’d like:

Do you actually enjoy browsing this subreddit? What do you think of the Nothing community here?
Will we ever see another phone with the design philosophy of the Phone (1)/(2)? I’m thinking of things like the full-screen Glyph interface and the curved rear glass of the Phone (2). Are those ideas you’d consider bringing back?
What is your current vision for Nothing OS in terms of performance and simplicity? One thing that originally attracted me to the Phone (1) was how fast, clean and relatively debloated Nothing OS felt. Recently, though, I’ve seen CMF Phone 1 users reporting significant performance issues after Nothing OS 4.1. How do you balance adding more features with keeping the OS lightweight and fast?
Have you ever come across my Better Nothing Music Visualizer project? It provides a better music visualizer for the Glyph Interface, Glyph Matrix, and Glyph bar. It also makes your phone vibrate and flash to the beat, and lets you sync multiple phones together! If you have, I’d genuinely love to know what you think of it.
I remember when you used to make videos showcasing things the Nothing community was building: apps, projects, creative uses of Nothing products, etc. I really enjoyed those.

Why did you stop doing them? Do you still keep up with what the community is building, and would you consider bringing that kind of content back?

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One of the major drawbacks of Nothing phone seems to be the camera. Online people often mention the camera hardware is good but it's the camera software so they recommend using Google's camera app. Will there be any updates on the camera app or give the option to switch camera apps?

Hey Carl I've used the phone (1) for 3 years and then i upgraded now to phone (3) one issue I've seen that is consistent is Say when I'm on call with someone The network shifts to 4G which is understandable But then once the call is over it doesn't automatically switch back to 5G I always have to go into network settings and switch it manually using network preference Hope you see into this since it's clearly an issue that's been seeping through the generations

Do you think it is an increasing a conflict between being

A brand that has its own charector, is a statement of its own vs
Growing as a brand for the commons .

Do you think they are conflicting tendencies because it's hard to be common while also being noticable different.

The Nothing Phone (2) deserves the Nothing OS 5.0 update. Its processor is still capable, and it’s still your second flagship phone. It definitely deserves at least one more major update.

Hello, I would love to know the likelihood of getting the N-Dot typeface/font fully integrated into the OS?

I absolutely love the font, it feels like the true font for the brand, but not being able to use it at the system level makes me sad. I understand that it probably won't be super legible or popular, but the option to use it would be awesome and more importantly, fun.
I've also often wondered if you're able to, as a company change the GBoard fonts? Because being able to use that there too would be next level. Or maybe there's a Nothing keyboard in the works?

Hey Carl, whats the name scheme for nothing products. It's confusing cause it almost makes sense but dsnt

Hi, thers the thing, I use a nothing phone 3a, it's good but coming from a phone 2 i miss so much features, besides that I feel like essential key is useless for many, is there any way you could make it so that it's useful by reprogramming it to different things???

I really miss the Glyph indicator for “OK Google”

Back when I was using the Phone (1), the Glyph lights would light up whenever I activated Google Assistant with “OK Google.” It was such a simple but useful feature because I could immediately tell that my phone was listening without having to look at the screen.
But now, neither the Phone (3) nor the Phone (4a) Pro seems to have this feature anymore. Is there some kind of technical limitation that prevents Nothing from bringing it back?

One of the things I really liked about Nothing’s philosophy was the idea of making us look at our phones less. But ironically, with “OK Google” now, I have to actually pick up my phone and look at it just to confirm whether Google Assistant was activated.
Would love to see a Glyph Matrix indicator for “OK Google” in a future update. Even just a small animation or light pattern would be enough.

It was actually one of those little details that made the Phone (1) feel special.