5 days ago
Nothing's New Phone Kills a Defining Feature but May Add a Whole New One
It's hard to stand out in the phone world. Outside of foldable screens like the Flip and Fold pioneered by Samsung, most phones nowadays wind up looking suspiciously iPhone-esque—a rectangular glass slab with small variations in chassis that equate to flat or less-flat edges. That's why, when phone upstart Nothing put out its Phone 1, a few design tweaks went a long way. First and foremost, the phones have a 'transparent design,' which basically just means a slightly see-through backplate that showcases some internal components.
Perhaps even more defining than that semi-transparent design aesthetic, however, is the Glyph Interface—an array of LEDs that light up the phone's backside to show notifications, timers, etc. A design choice that, according to a brief-but-telling post on X, may soon wind up in the graveyard.
We killed the Glyph Interface.
— Nothing (@nothing) May 29, 2025
'We killed the Glyph Interface' doesn't leave much to the imagination, especially with Nothing CEO Carl Pei chiming in underneath the seemingly straightforward update to say, 'RIP.' So, that's it, right? Nothing just unceremoniously killed its phones' defining feature—maybe one that's even more defining than the design ethos they're kind of known for. Maybe! But maybe not. Rumors indicate that though the Glyph Interface as we know it may be done for, there's a new luminous sheriff in town, and it may give Nothing phones a whole new look.
While these are firmly rumors, Nothing fans have been speculating about a new kind of Glyph Interface—the dot matrix—and not all of the speculation is unfounded. Last week, Nothing tweeted out a teaser for its upcoming Phone 3, which is set to be unveiled in July, that gave a pretty big hint at a future dot-style design choice.
New dots. Phone (3). Coming July 2025.
— Nothing India (@nothingindia) May 23, 2025
'New dots' isn't much to go off of and could easily just be an update to its existing dot matrix aesthetic in NothingOS, but at the same time, the fact that Nothing bothered to issue a full-on teaser says a lot. And if I'm to put on my LED-clad tin foil hat for a moment, it would seem to me that a company as obsessed with its design and image as Nothing wouldn't so confidently announce that its next phone is about to get a lot more boring if it didn't have some other trick up its sleeve.
One thing is for sure: There's a big change a-comin' and the Glyph Interface is at the center of that. However you feel about the Glyph Interface, it makes sense from a pure economics perspective to switch things up. LEDs are expensive and actually limiting when you break them down. They might be good for timer bars because of the granularity, but they can't show text and other word-based information. Either way, we'll find out soon enough, because Nothing is set to release its next phone this summer, and we'll more than likely have a device to test and show off when they finally roll around.
